When You Break A TV: Night 5
by Ogreatrandom
Summary: Maggie is a bit of a klutz, and accidentally dropped her tv set down a flight of stairs. As punishment she must live through 7 nights of her favorite movies. You don’t have to read the previous nights to understand.
1. Fired

_**Author's Note:**_

_So this is the Fifth Night. As I said, there's no real reason to read the other stories. All you need to know is that Maggie broke a tv set and is now being punished. She goes through the movie, (tries not to die), and then wakes up the next day._

_Sorry it took me a while to post. I lent my copy of National Treasure out and I just now got it back. Hope that everyone enjoys this! Thank you if you are following this story from the last night!_

_I've reposted since there was a problem with the first one._

**Previously:**

"Why won't anyone believe me?!?" I asked Philo Farnsworth as he appeared next to me.

"I'm sure you're a very persuasive person," the gloating man told me, "but you'll still find it next to impossible to convince anyone that what you are talking about is true. You're better just shutting your mouth and accepting your punishment."

"So what movie is it this time?" I asked.

"National Treasure," the ghost/hallucination told me with his usual evil grin, "you are a recently fired FBI agent."

"Sounds fun," I growled at him.

"Maybe not for you," he replied, "but it's a lot of fun for me!"

**Chapter #1:**

I was sitting outside the FBI building, and I was very depressed. And when I say depressed, I mean that I had been sitting on the same bench for almost five hours without moving. I hadn't even gotten up to eat.

You see I had just been fired from the FBI, and it had not been pretty. To cut the story short let's just say that I was not expecting to receive a positive recommendation from them.

"Is it really so hard to believe that someone's going to try to steal the Declaration of Independence?" a man asked. I turned to see two men exiting the FBI building, both of them looked discouraged.

"The FBI gets ten thousand tips a week," the second man told the first man, "they're not going to worry about something they're sure is safe."

They sounded a little like the average crazy conspiracy theory person. But they didn't look the same as the hundreds of others I had encountered. With nothing better to do I stood up and casually followed, eavesdropping.

"But anyone that can do anything is going to think we're crazy," the first man said. He was shorter and had darker hair. I was guessing the taller one was in charge. "And anyone crazy enough to believe us isn't going to want to help," he continued.

"We don't need someone crazy," the taller man pointed out, "but one step short of crazy." Hmm, I think my boss had just used the turn of phrase to describe me this morning during the whole firing scene. "What do you get?"

Well apparently according to my former boss that was me. But the shorter man wasn't thinking of me.

"Obsessed," he answered.

"Passionate," the other man corrected. He looked back and noticed that I was obviously listening in on their conversation. "Are you following us?" he demanded. Damn, busted.

"Maybe," I answered.

"Who are you?" he asked.

"My name's Maggie," I told them, "I'm recently unemployed."

"What do you want?" the shorter man asked.

"You're desperate for help," I shrugged, "and I'm desperate to get my job at the FBI back. It seems that maybe we could help each other out."

"You're willing to believe us?" the taller man demanded.

"Hey," I confessed, "I'm willing to believe anything if I can do something to get my job back." The two men exchanged looks.

"All right," the taller one said finally, "there is something that you could do. We," he indicated himself and the other man, "have another stop to make. But if you could call around to people you know in the FBI maybe you can get attention we couldn't."

"I can try," I said doubtfully.

"Do you know where the DC Diner is?" I nodded yes. "How about we meet there in two hours?"

"Sounds good," I answered. The two men began to walk away. "Hey," I called, "you didn't tell me your names."

"I'm Ben," the taller one answered, "and he's Riley."

"-and then Ben lit a flare," Riley said, "and pointed out to Ian and Shaw that they were both standing in a pile of gunpowder."

Riley was telling me all about how Ian Howe had betrayed them north of the Artic Circle. I hadn't even met the guy and I already hated him. We were sitting in the DC Diner sipping our drinks and waiting for the food to come.

"I definitely did not like the plan," he continued, "but it was the only thing we could do. But it didn't faze Ian, he is unflappable. He asked Ben what he needed to know. So Ben threw the flare at them. Ian caught it, but then all of the sudden his whole arm burst into flames. And then he dropped the flare to the ground."

"That doesn't sound good," I murmured. It was an incredible story.

"Shaw began taking shots at Ben and I, but he missed us. Then Ian and Shaw left, locking us in with all of the about to go boom gunpowder. I was scared out of my mind. But Ben managed to find a Smuggler's Hold and we crawled away just before the whole ship exploded."

"You guys sure were lucky," I said shaking my head, "they really meant to kill you. But I guess Ian took the pipe with him?"

"Yeah," Ben answered, "so we had no proof of what Ian is about to do."

"So no one would listen to you," I nodded, "that makes sense. I wouldn't have listened to you, you sound like nut jobs."

"Thanks," Riley said sarcastically rolling his eyes.

"Hey," I defended myself, "I didn't say that I wouldn't try to help."

"And will you help us if we decide to do something a little illegal?" Ben asked.

"How about a lot illegal?" Riley seemed to be talking more to Ben then me. Ben ignored his friend.

"Sure," I grinned, "why not?"

After all, I thought to myself, if they were right then I would part of the group that saved the Declaration of Independence. They would have no choice but to hire me back at the FBI then!


	2. The Library Of Congress

_**Author's Note:**_

_Thank you for the reviews! You guys are the best!_

_I hate to do this but I changed things around a little bit to include Maggie in the Library of Congress scene. I really don't like to change anything but I couldn't find another way to get her in. Sorry._

_**Disclaimer:**_

_Here's a shocker. I don't own it. Nope, not even a little. Just so you know…_

**Chapter #2:**

"No Ben," Riley said, "this is crazy. Maggie you have to help me talk him out of this."

"Why?" I asked.

"He wants to steal the Declaration of Independence," Riley hissed checking to make sure no one was close enough to hear us.

"In order to protect it from Ian," Ben clarified, "we've been over this. Ian is going to steal it. And I think that he can."

"Well I think that he can't," Riley argued, "tell him how much trouble we would be in if we were caught stealing the Declaration of Independence. It's not like getting a parking ticket!"

"True," I agreed, "it would be a serious offence." But I could tell Ben wasn't going to be dissuaded. And there was something about the way that he spoke that convinced me that he and Riley really were telling the truth.

Part of me seriously wanted to call the FBI myself and turn the two of them in for plotting to steal the Declaration of Independence. It was my sensible side. However my stupid size was much larger then the sensible side, and much louder too.

"I'm in," I told them. Ben smiled for the first time and Riley thunked his head against the table. "Now what?" I asked.

"Now I am taking us on a field trip to prove that I am right," Riley insisted.

Riley's little field trip ended up taking us to the Library Of Congress. It was a beautiful building.

"Okay Ben," Riley said, "pay attention. You too Maggie. I've brought you to the Library of Congress. Why?" I rose my hand to answer the question but he ignored me. "Because it's the biggest library in the world." I lowered my hand sulkily, I would have gotten the answer wrong anyway.

"Over twenty million books," he continued, "and they're all saying the same exact thing: Listen to Riley." Ben and I exchanged looks before looking back at Riley. "What we have here my friend is an entire layout of the Archives. Short of builders' blueprints. You've got," he began to pull out papers and books, "construction orders, phone lines, water and sewage- it's all here."

"You'd think this stuff wouldn't be so easy to access," I pointed out. Ben looked as if he appreciated my point, though Riley merely looked annoyed and continued as if I hadn't said anything.

"Now," he said, "when the Declaration is on display, okay," he opened a book and using a pen pointed to the picture, "it is surrounded by guards and video monitors, and little families from Iowa, and little kids on their eighth grade field trips. And beneath an inch of bulletproof glass is an army of sensors and heat monitors that will go off if someone gets too close with a high fever."

"I am beginning to see Riley's point," I admitted.

"Thank you," he said gratefully before turning back to Ben and opening another page in the book, "Now when it's not on display it is lowered into a four foot think concrete, steel plated vault that happens to be equipped with an electronic combination lock and biometric access-denial systems."

"Yikes," I remarked. Ben, on the other hand, did not look fazed in the least.

"You know," he said casually, "Thomas Edison tried and failed nearly two thousand times to develop the carbonized cotton-thread filament for the incandescent light bulb."

"Edison?" Riley repeated confused.

"What a wonderful bit of trivia," I said to Ben, "I don't see the point but it's interesting all the same."

"When asked about it," Ben continued ignoring our inquisitive stares, "he said, _'I didn't fail. I found out two thousand ways how not to make a light bulb. _' But he only needed to find one way to make it work."

"So the moral of this story is that the great inventors were insane and if we are insane as well we will succeed?" I asked.

Wordlessly Ben brought out another book, already opened to a page. Riley and I leaned over to look at it. It was more information about the Declaration of Independence, naturally. But it was different from the stuff that Riley had showed us earlier.

"The Preservation Room," he said triumphantly, "enjoy." Riley took the book to examine it better. "Do you know what the Preservation Room is for?" he asked. I shrugged.

"Delicious jams and jellies?" Riley guessed. My stomach rumbled a little and I hoped that he was right.

"No," Ben answered.

"Darn it," I sighed causing both of them to give me strange looks.

"That's where they clean, repair, and maintain all the documents and the storage housings when they're not on display or in the vault," he explained. "Now when the case needs work they take it out of the vault, directly across the hall, and into the Preservation Room. The best time for us, or Ian, to steal it would be during the gala this weekend, when the guards are distracted by the V.I.P.s upstairs. But we'll make our way to the Preservation Room, where there's much less security."

"That's a long explanation," I said, "but it sounded pretty smart to me." Ben and I looked at Riley who was still looking over the information.

"Huh," he said finally, "well if Ian… Uh… Preservation… hmm. The gala, huh?" Then he looked up at us. "This might be possible," he announced.

"It might," Ben nodded.

"I knew it," I declared. Ben and Riley looked at my incredulously and I shrugged. "You know, sort of."


	3. Getting Ready To Cause Some Crime

**Chapter #3:**

The next few days I kept busy running around and helping prepare for our well intentioned heist. Ben had a long list of supplies that we needed that I was expected to go and get. Some of them were simple enough to get at a grocery store. Some, on the other hand, were a little more complicated to get a hold of.

"- well I'm not exactly employed by the government anymore," I was saying to a supplier over the phone, "but not to worry, you will still get your money. Who am I working for now? Uh, I'm working for… I'm working freelance. Yep. Okay, I will see you in a couple of hours." I closed the phone with a snap.

Just then Riley opened the door to the van and got back in. He instantly began checking things on his laptop.

"Everything set?" I asked.

"Game on," he replied with a grin. I shook my head in disbelief.

"If I ever get my job back," I told him, "the first thing I am going to do is make the security system on these government places harder to hack into."

"Sounds like a plan," he replied, "but they will never be Riley proof." I rolled my eyes, though I honestly could see his point. "So did you find someone to help us get those things that Ben wanted?"

"Yeah," I replied putting the van into gear, "it's not a problem. I know a guy from my former occupation who does not always operate on the side of the government anyway. If we have the money, he's got the stuff."

"Sounds like a bad spy movie," Riley commented as I began to drive away.

"These stereotypes have to come from somewhere," I shrugged.

For someone who had never committed a crime before Ben was shockingly, (not to mention scarily), resourceful and clever. After asking me about the procedures for gaining access to the building he went and forged himself an employee access pass.

"Wow," I commented when I saw it, "I think that'll fool just about anyone."

"Let's hope," he replied. "Did you get the supplies I asked for?"

"Yep," I handed him a bag, "what is the plan with the chemicals?"

"I'll show you." Ben mixed them together, then rubbed a little over his fingers. Then he traced something on the surface of the table. Next he grabbed a black light and shone it on the area.

Amazingly the smiley face he had traced showed up a bright greenish color under the light.

"Now," he explained, "I will dip this campaign button in the chemical and give it to someone who has admission to the preservation room. When she uses her access code her fingerprints will show up on the keypad."

"Are you sure you haven't done this before?" I asked.

"Quite," he assured me.

"Then you have a hell of a lot of beginners luck. You guys have done an amazing job considering that you have so little experience and your equipment isn't exactly normal crime gear."

"Nature must obey necessity," Ben said with a shrug.

"Ah," I nodded, "Edison again."

"Shakespeare," he corrected.

"Ah yes," I said, "Romeo and Juliet."

"Actually," Ben informed me, "it's from Julius Cesar."

"I always get those two mixed up," I tried trying to restore my image as a smart person.

"Sure you do."

"They both start with J," I pointed out. He chuckled, so I was doubting that he had believed me.

Finally the weekend, and the big gala, arrived. My job was to mingle in the crowd outside of the building, but to keep an eye out for signs that we had been busted or suspicious people who could be members of Ian's team making their move at the same time. As I was taking my place outside of the main entrance I saw the red van pulling up across the street out of the corner of my eye.

"Riley," I heard Ben say through the earpiece I was wearing, "can you hear me?"

"Unfortunately yeah," I heard him answer.

"Maggie," Ben said, "how about you?"

"Yes," I answered softly, "I am outside of the building."

"And we're all set in here," Riley said from the van.

"Good," Ben whispered, "I am about to go in." It only took a few minutes for him to say that he had gotten inside. I wished that I was going to get to actually go into the party, it looked like fun.

"How do you look?" I heard Riley ask.

"Not bad," Ben answered.

"Mazel tov," Riley said with false cheer.

"Bring me back some food," I told him.

"You do realize Ben is in there to steal a priceless piece of American history, don't you?" Riley asked.

"Yeah," I answered, "I get that. I'm just hungry standing out here."

If I had turned around then I just might have noticed the big van that pulled up and parked over top of a grate. And since I was so hungry that would be a big maybe.

"For you," I heard Ben saying to someone.

"Oh," a woman's voice said, "Mr. Brown."

"Mr. Brown?" I repeated confused. "I thought his name was Gates."

"It is," Riley explained to me, "Brown is an alias."

"Do I get one?" I asked.

"You don't need one," Riley snapped.

"What are you doing here?" the woman talking to Ben asked.

"I'm here to break into the Preservation Room and make off with the Declaration of Independence," I mock answered for Ben, "and you?"

"Is that the hot girl?" Riley asked. "How does she look?" I was guessing that if Ben had been free to respond to us his answer would not be pleasant. As it was he was not so all he could do was lie to the nice lady.

"I made a last minute donation," he responded, "a pretty big one."

"Well on that subject," she said, "thank you for your wonderful gift."

"Oh you did get it? Good," he sounded relieved.

"Aha," I exclaimed aloud, "this is that woman who you are using to get a password into the room." They continued to chat pleasantly, which was joined by another man. Riley kept talking, trying to get Ben back to focusing on our robbery in the works. I tried to make subtle hints about food for Maggie. Hard to say if he understood since he could not reply. Then I heard Ben calling for a toast.

"To high treason," he announced. "That's what these men were committing when they signed the Declaration. Had we lost the war they would have been hanged, beheaded, drawn and quartered, and- Oh! Oh, my personal favorite- had **their entrails cut out and burned**!"

"Oh dear god tell me they still don't do that," I pleaded.

"They might for us," Riley muttered. Ben was chuckling, he was probably more then a little unhinged. I wondered how I had missed noticing that earlier.

"So," he continued, "here's to the men who did what was considered wrong in order to do what they knew was right. What they knew was right." There was a pause, where I was betting that Ben had gulped down a large amount of alcohol. "Well," he said to the two people, "good night."

"Because that little speech won't make anyone suspicious," I grunted sarcastically.


	4. 4th Chapter On The 4th Of July

_**Author's Note:**_

_Happy 4__th__ of July from here in Philly where the Declaration was signed. Not that I'm really doing much. Just a party and hopefully watching the unaired episodes of Drive, which was not given a fair amount of time to prove itself. But I am celebrating by updating, (ironically this is also the 4__th__ chapter). It's not all that long, but I thought that it made sense to put something up. Happy holiday!_

**Chapter #4:**

"This better work," Riley commented.

"Yeah," I agreed, "because otherwise how will I get my job back?"

"Well I was a little more concerned about a criminal stealing the Declaration and destroying it."

"There's that too," I allowed. We waited a few minutes, hoping that everything was working out well.

"How's it going?" Riley asked.

"It's working," Ben whispered back, "it's working."

"Unbelievable," Riley mused.

"Okay," Ben said, "I'm going to go to the elevator."

"Just act confident," I suggested, "as if you know what you're doing and no one has any right to try and stop you."

"We're in the elevator," Ben said a few minutes later.

"All right!" I cheered.

"Okay," Riley said in a much more subdued voice, "I'm gonna turn off the surveillance cameras. Ready? In five, four, three… Now. Ben Gates, you are now the Invisible Man."

"Congrats," I added.

"I'm here," Ben said once he'd reached the keyboard where a password was required.

"Give me the letters for her password," Riley told Ben. "What do you got for me? Hit me with it."

"A-E-F-G-L-O-R-V-Y."

"Anagrams being listed," Riley informed us.

"Remember," I said, "we've only got one shot. We don't want to put the system into lock down mode."

"Got it," Ben answered.

"Top results," Riley announced, "'A Glove Fry.' 'A Very Golf.' 'Fargo Levy.' 'Gravy Floe.' 'Valey Frog.'"

"Those don't sound likely at all," I commented, "unless Fargo Levy is the name of a boyfriend or a pet."

"There's also 'Ago Fly Rev.'," Riley suggested, "uh… 'Grove Fly A.' 'Are Fly Gov.' 'Era Fly Gov.' 'Elf Gov Ray.'-"

"It's 'Valley Forge'," Ben interrupted.

"Valley Forge? I don't have that on my computer."

"Psh," I said, "who can trust a computer."

"It's Valley Forge," Ben repeated to forestall the immanent fight between Riley and I over computers, "she pressed the E and the L twice." There was the sound of typing and then a second later Ben was saying, "We're in."

"You've been saying things like that a lot," I pointed out, "I guess that means we're doing something right."

"Hello," Riley said.

"Can I come into the van?" I asked Riley over the communicator in my ear, "I'm tired and hungry. Also I want to watch Ben steal the Declaration. I think it's one of those things I may only have one chance to experience."

"Just do your job Maggie," Riley answered. "Ben you're doing great," he said a second later. "Ben," Riley cautioned a minute later, "pick it up."

"There's no reason to hurry," I assured them, "I would have seen if anything was about to go wrong. I am on top of things." But of course the universe hates it when I get cocky, which is why at that exact second Riley said something that contradicted my statement.

"I lost my feed!"

"What?" Ben exclaimed.

"Impossible," I countered.

"I lost my feed," Riley repeated. "I don't know where anyone is. I have nothing. Ben I have no- Ben I have nothing! Get out of there," Riley ordered, "get out of there now."

"I'm taking the whole thing," Ben told us, "I'll get it out in the elevator."

"What are you talking about? Is it heavy?"

"Now listen," I reasoned with them, "these things happen. Maybe it was just some sort of power surge, or something fell out of place. I mean it's not as if Ian is about to burst in at any second. I would have noticed."

All of the sudden several loud cracks came over the earpiece.

"What was that?" Riley asked.

"Sounded like a gun," I answered. "Ben is there a gun being fired in your vicinity?"

"Who's shooting?" Riley asked. "Are you still there? Ben?"

"I'm in the elevator," he notified us, "Ian's here. There was uh, shooting."

"I hate that guy," Riley muttered.

"Me too!" I added.

"Why didn't you notice him?" Riley demanded.

"Well maybe you should have given me a better idea what he looked like," I snapped. "So anyway Ben, a quick and quiet exit would be just the thing right about now. After all, gunshots tend to get noticed. Especially by security people."

"Maybe you should get in the van and you and Riley should get ready to go as soon as I'm out," Ben suggested.

"All right," I agreed, "good luck and I'll see you in a second." I didn't add, "if we're lucky", but I might as well have. We were all thinking it.


	5. Car Chase

**Chapter #5:**

I walked over to the van, taking the earpiece out as I went. It was quite itchy and I was glad not to be wearing it anymore. Riley waited for Ben in a rather twitchy manner, his earpiece still in so he could hear Ben. I didn't know what was happening but Riley was nervous.

I wasn't sure which possible scenario was worrying him. His choices were: The Feds catch us and we're screwed, or Ian the evil criminal mastermind catches us and once again we're screwed.

I didn't want to think about it. It was hard not to though.

"Where are you Ben?" Riley asked in a sing song voice, breaking the silence. "Where are you?"

I couldn't hear Ben's response without the ear piece in, but he must have said something because Riley sat up and looked back at the building. I looked as well and could see Ben coming out and heading towards us. He started to cross the street and Riley started the van.

"Who's that?" I asked pointing at a woman who had come out after Ben and who was now following him. Riley didn't answer me, speaking instead to Ben.

"Ben the mean Declaration Lady is behind you," Riley told him.

"The one who's fingerprints we used to break into the Preservation Room?" I asked. Riley nodded, looking nervous. "This could complicate things," I muttered. She strode purposefully to Ben, who had just opened the back door of our red van and placed something inside.

"Hey," she called.

"Oh it's you," he said slamming the door closed, "hello."

"Mr. Brown what's going on?" she asked. "What's that?"

"Oh please oh please don't let her be referring to the document we removed from the building," I whispered.

"It's a souvenir," he lied. His voice was tense and I could tell that my plea had gone unheeded by the powers the be.

"Really?" Now Mean Declaration Lady sounded suspicious. Which proved that she was not an idiot. Good for her, bad for us.

"Stop chatting," Riley said into his microphone through clenched teeth, "and get in the van."

"Did you enjoy the party?" Ben asked, obviously trying to put the woman at ease. Riley groaned a little next to me, upset that Ben was not following his instructions.

A second later with a ring and a buzz the security system of the National Archives did it's job, alerting everyone that we had done something illegal.

"Oh my god," Riley moaned.

"Oh my god!" I heard Mean Declaration Lady yelling, unconsciously echoing Riley. "You did not-!" Ben was protesting but it did no good. "Security!" she shouted. "Over here! Security!"

"That would be our cue to leave," I pointed out unnecessarily. Mean Declaration Lady was still screaming for security when Ben threw himself into the seat in front of me.

"We can't just let her go," Riley protested. I looked over and saw that she was clutching something that looked like it could be a two hundred year old document that had just been removed from the National Archives.

"We can," Ben snapped, "go!" A second later Ben was speaking again. "No wait," he said now, "hold it!"

"I don't think we're in any position to linger," I told him.

"No," he pointed at Mean Declaration Lady, "it's Ian!" I looked where he was pointing and saw that a nicer van then ours had pulled alongside the woman. Two men jumped out and went after her. "Bad, bad, bad!" Ben shouted getting out of the van again. I agreed with his assessment of the situation, though I didn't quite know what he was planning on doing about it.

No sooner had he gotten out then someone in the other van began firing rounds at him. Ben ducked down behind the van. Most of the shots hit the hood with some sparking and pinging. But one hit a light which shattered, another took out the side mirror on the drivers side, and a third shattered a window. Riley and I scrunched down as best we could.

"Shoot back!" Riley shouted at me.

"I can't," I answered, "they took my gun when they fired me!"

"Then how are you supposed to be any help?"

"I am intelligent," I pointed out. Riley responded to this by laughing, which under the present circumstances I decided to just assume meant that he believed I was intelligent.

I heard raised voices and peered over to see the two men from the other van lift the Declaration Lady up and drag her into their van. Then the other van, which was blue and silver, drove away.

"That's…" Riley started but didn't have any ending he was able to voice.

"Well," I commented, "this part of the plan certainly isn't proceeding as planed."

"Go!" Ben shouted. "Go!"

"I hope you're sure this time," I grumbled. Riley stepped on the gas and we were off, chasing the blue van. There was the sound of police sirens coming from somewhere close by, but they didn't seem to have spotted us, as they were going in the opposite direction.

"Once we catch them," Riley asked as he drove, "what do we do?"

"I'm working on it," Ben answered.

"Right turn, right turn," Riley muttered as he struggled to get the bulky van to turn.

"If I had known a high speed chase would be involved," I commented, "I would have suggested a car with more maneuverability. I suppose it's lucky that the vehicle we're chasing isn't much more maneuverable them we are."

"Not helping," Ben growled at me, obviously still coming up with his master plan.

There was the sound of a horn blaring and the blue van skidded to avoid a collision with a truck in front of it. With a squeal of tires Riley mimicked his movement. And that's when Ian decided to steer his van into a construction site. With several crashes and bumps we followed them.

"Damn it Riley," I cried as a particularly jarring bump made it feel as if all the bones in my body had been broken, "maybe I should drive."

"Oh like you could be a better driver then me," Riley scoffed. Then suddenly we were skidding in some dust or dirt. "Skidding, skidding," Riley muttered as he tried to get us moving forward.

"We know," Ben and I told him. I looked down to make double sure that my seat belt was fastened.

"Oh no," Ben groaned.

"Holy Lord!" Riley exclaimed.

"What now?" I asked looking up. The double doors in the back of the blue van had come open. Mean Declaration Lady was hanging by one of them, still clutching the Declaration in her hand, while a man standing in the interior of the blue van was reaching for her. Another man on the inside of the van took the opportunity to shoot at us, but the man going after the Declaration made him stop.

Ben jumped back next to where I was sitting. He held on to the seat belt to secure himself as he hung outside of the van.

"Get me next to her," he ordered Riley. Riley swung out into the opposing traffic lane. The only problem was the giant bus trying to use the lane as well, and both we and the blue van were forced to move aside to let it go by. I began making deals with the gods of traffic.

Once the bus was clear Riley moved back next to the blue van. Ben stretched his hand out but the blue van swerved and the door swung shut. It was only for a minute, but when I looked I noticed that the woman wasn't holding the Declaration anymore.

Ben reached again, and managed to get hold of Mean Declaration Lady's arm. But the man with the gun popped out of the back of the van and opened fire. Ben and the lady jumped into the back seat and I reached over and shut the door.

With a swerve Riley was able to bring us out of the their range and then out of their sight.

"Yay," I cheered, "we're alive! Alive is good!"

"We're also not in prison," Riley pointed out.

"Also good," I nodded.

"Are you all right?" Ben asked the woman.

"No," she replied sounding distraught, "those lunatics-"

"You're not hurt," Ben interrupted her, "are you?"

"You are all lunatics!" she screamed.

"But we're the not dead and not in prison sort of lunatics," I assured her.

"Are you hungry?" Ben asked.

"What?" she screeched.

"Yes!" I shouted. "You didn't bring me anything from the party, remember?" But Ben was ignoring me as he continued to try to communicate with Mean Declaration Lady, who wasn't having any of it.

"Are you all right?" he asked.

"Still a little on edge from being shot at," Riley answered while the woman gaped at Ben, "but I'll be okay. Thanks for asking."

"I'm hungry," I reminded them.

"Yeah well I'm not all right," Mean Declaration Lady told Ben, "those men have the Declaration of Independence."

"She has a point," I sighed, "we did plan this whole thing so that Ian wouldn't get the Declaration, but now he has all the same."

"She lost it?" Riley asked turning around to look at Ben.

"They don't have it," Ben told all of us calmly. He pulled out a long plastic tube and unscrewed the end of it to reveal a yellowed document wrapped in protective plastic inside of it. "See? Okay? Now could you please stop shouting?" She reached for it, but Ben quickly pulled it away.

"Give me that," she demanded.

"You're still shouting," Ben sighed, "and it's really starting to annoy."

"It is a rather cramped space," I agreed, "the shouting is a little painful."

"You would do well Dr. Chase," Ben advised the woman, "to be a bit more civilized in this instance."

"If this is the real one," the woman who I now knew to be Dr. Chase asked, "what did they get?"

"A souvenir," Ben answered. "I thought it'd be a good idea to have a duplicate. It turned out, I was right. I actually had to pay for the souvenir and the real one, so you owe me thirty five dollars, plus tax."

"Genius," Riley laughed.

"Oh," I exclaimed happily, "are we going to get reimbursed for everything we spent on the heist?" No one answered me, which didn't seem like a good sign.

"Who were those men?" Dr. Chase asked ignoring me.

"Just the guys we warned you were going to steal the Declaration," Ben told her, still in a calm reassuring voice that was doing nothing to make Dr. Chase calm or reassured.

"And you," Riley added, "didn't believe us."

"We did the only thing we could do to keep it safe," Ben finished. But this was obviously not satisfactory to Dr. Chase.

"Verdammt!" she shouted lunging for the Declaration which Ben was still holding. "Give me that!" I grabbed one of her arms and pulled her off Ben.

"You know something," he said, "you're shouting again."

"I'm pretty sure she was swearing too," Riley commented.

"Not to mention she's becoming violent," I muttered as Dr. Chase pulled her arm out of my grip.

"Well we probably deserve all that," Ben said thoughtfully.

"We didn't force her to make a scene and get herself snatched," I pointed out indignantly. "All we did was, you know," I gestured at the Declaration, "steal the priceless piece of paper that symbolizes our country's freedom."

I fell silent, thinking about what I'd said and realizing that maybe I had just been involved in more serious of a crime then I'd first supposed.

Uh oh…


	6. On The Grid

_**Author's Note:**_

_Sorry that this is a bit of a short chapter. If I have time later I'll start the next one. Thank you to everyone who read and reviewed!_

_Oh and a quick disclaimer, I mention the name Melvin Pickle which is from the Stephanie Plum books by Janet Evanovich._

**Chapter #6:**

"There is _not_ a treasure map on the back of the Declaration of Independence," Abigail said in the tone that you would use to talk to small children. It was a little insulting frankly.

"And there's no chance anyone could steal this either," Ben replied shaking the document as he spoke. "I leveled with you one hundred percent," he continued, "everything I told you was the truth." But Abigail was still in a not happy mood.

"I want that document Mr. Brown," she demanded.

"Who's Mr. Brown?" I asked looking at Ben confused. He sighed.

"Okay," Ben said reluctantly, "my name's not Brown. It's Gates. I leveled with you ninety-eight percent."

"You were still very truthful," I consoled him, "you were almost all truthful."

"Wait a minute," Abigail said fixing Ben with a look, "did you just say Gates?" She looked from Ben, to Riley, to me as if thinking one of use was going to say 'just kidding' or deny it. "_Gates_!?!"

Her reaction confused me, I didn't think Gates was a funny name at all. It wasn't as if his name was Melvin Pickle or something. I also didn't think that I'd ever heard of a serial killer named Gates who specialized in killing people who worked in museums.

"You're that family with the conspiracy theory about the Founding Fathers," she accused pointing at him. Ah, now her reaction made more sense. Also I was very glad to know he wasn't an infamous serial killer. That sort of news always brightened my day.

"It's not a conspiracy theory," Ben defended himself.

"Per se," Riley muttered.

"You know what?" Abigail asked.

"What?" I said hopefully. Maybe she was ready to believe us!

"You're not liars."

"Yay!"

"You're insane!"

"Oh…" I turned to Ben. "She's mean," I pouted.

"You'll have to excuse her," Ben told me grinning at Abigail, "I think that Dr. Chase is having a particularly rough day."

"It doesn't give her the right to insult us," I mumbled. I zoned out a little as Ben tried to calm Abigail down by explaining the plan to her. I didn't pay attention until Abigail started yelling again.

"You can't seriously intend to run chemical tests on the Declaration of Independence in the back of a moving van!" She shouted.

"We have a clean-room environment all set up," Riley assured her, "E.D.S. suits, a particulate air filter, the whole shebang."

"Really?" Abigail asked looking a little calmer. Like maybe she wasn't so horrified at what we were doing anymore.

"Oh yeah," I told her, "it's a great room. Perfectly clean. Ben won't even let me bring food in there." I thought that maybe we were finally getting through to Abigail when Ben spoke up and ruined it.

"We can't go back there," he told us.

"What?" Riley asked. "Why not?"

"There's an unopened bag of chips there," I cried, "they're calling my name! We have to go back! Why don't you want me to eat?!?"

"We can't go back there because the F.B.I. will be on their way there already," Ben sighed looking discouraged. "I didn't have enough cash to buy the duplicate so I had to use a credit card."

"A credit card slip?" Riley shouted.

"But that's like leaving a calling card," I said frantically, "a calling card with your name, address, and every place where you've been in the past couple of months! It's like calling them and telling them where you are and asking them to pretty please come and arrest you!"

"Please stay calm Maggie," Ben ordered sounding frustrated.

"Dude we're on the grid," Riley groaned, "they'll have your records from forever. They'll have Maggie's records from forever. They'll have my records from forever." I nodded in concurrence.

"I know," Ben said curtly, "I know. It's only a matter of minutes before the F.B.I. shows up at my front door."

"Yeah," I agreed, "don't let the fact that they hired me make you doubt them. The F.B.I. is very good at their jobs, and one of their jobs is catching bad guys. And right now, the bad guys are us."

"What do we do?" Riley asked.

"We need those letters," Ben sighed.

"What letters?" Abigail asked.

"You know what," Ben said suddenly, "get off the road. Take a right."

"What letters?" We all ignored her. It was odd to be the one doing the ignoring and not being the one ignored.


	7. A New Plan

**Author's Note:**

Well here is chapter seven, sorry it's been a while. I hope that everyone enjoys it!

**Chapter #7:**

We had pulled off the road and into a little clearing. Ben was out and pacing. Riley was sitting in the front seat and I was stretched out in the back trying to sleep. Abigail was sitting watching Ben pace. She kept asking Ben questions, which was not helping my attempts to fall asleep.

"You have the original Silence Dogood letter?" Abigail asked sounding incredulous. "Did you steal those too?"

"We have scans of the original," Ben corrected her. "Quiet please." He tried to begin pacing again, (which he obviously considered the only way that inspiration would strike and provide him with a way out of this mess). Abigail, however, refused to give him the opportunity.

"How'd you get scans?" she asked intrigued.

"He wished for them on a falling star," I snapped. "Some of us are trying to sleep here!"

"I know the person who has the originals," Ben answered before Abigail could ask her question again. "Now shush." This time Abigail lasted about five seconds before asking her next question.

"Why do you need them?"

"She really can't shut her mouth, can she?" Ben asked turning to us. Riley shrugged and I groaned rubbing a hand over my eyes. "I'll tell you what," Ben said to her, "look." He held out the Declaration of Independence to her. "I will let you hold on to this," she took it reverently, "if you will promise to shut up, please."

"Should he have handed her that?" Riley whispered to me.

"I don't care what he gives her," I replied grumpily, "as long as it keeps her quiet."

"Thank you," Ben said to Abigail before resuming his attempts to pace.

"Ben," Riley spoke up suddenly, "you know what you have to do."

"I know what to do," Ben replied. This was promising to me, having a plan seemed like a step in the right direction. "I'm just trying to think of anything else we could do."

"Well not to be a, uh, nudge," Riley said, "but you do realize how many people we have after us."

"It is a bit ridiculous," I conceded, "the F. B. I. take these manhunts very seriously."

"We probably have our own satellite by now," Riley pointed out.

"I wanted to be famous," I complained, "not infamous. However similar they may sound, it's just not the same thing."

"It took you all of two seconds to decide to steal the Declaration of Independence," Riley reminded Ben.

"Yeah," Ben agreed, "but I didn't think that I was going to personally have to tell my dad about it." Now Ben's hesitation made perfect sense to me. For some odd reason confessions like that tended to have a cooling effect on a parent's disposition.

At that second Abigail took off. Still holding on to the Declaration of Independence she began to run as fast as she could away from us. I guessed that she didn't want to be around when Ben told his dad that he had become a master thief. I couldn't blame her for that, I was considering running as well.

"Hey," Ben cried as he went after her, "not cool! Not cool!" He caught up with her embarrassingly quickly. Evening dresses just weren't designed with sprinting from kidnappers in mind.

"Let me go!" Abigail shrieked. Ben wrestled the Declaration of Independence from her grasp and stepped back.

"Okay," he told her, "you're let go. Go, shoo!"

"Finally some peace and quiet," I muttered.

"I'm not going," Abigail said stubbornly.

"Are you kidding me?" I asked disbelievingly. Riley chuckled at me.

"Not without the Declaration," Abigail concluded. She tried to grab it back from Ben but he held firm.

"You're not going with the Declaration," he insisted. Ben swung it onto his shoulder but a second later Abigail had a tight hold on the strap.

"Yes I am," she maintained adamantly, "I'm not letting it out of my sight so I'm going."

"Wait," Ben said getting the picture, "you're not going with us with the Declaration." It took me a couple more seconds to work what she was saying out, and once I did I was not happy.

"But she wants them to catch us," I pointed out, "thus making her not someone we want to take with us on our quest to avoid arrest." But the pair was ignoring me as they had what amounted to a game of 'Yes' 'No' 'Yes' 'No' while playing tug of war with the container that held the priceless document.

"Look," Abigail finally sighed, "if you wanted to leave me behind then you shouldn't have told me where you were going." Ben mouthed silently, but couldn't come up with an argument. Riley groaned, and I gave up on getting any sleep that night.

When we pulled up to the house where Ben's dad lived the four of us peered out, searching for any signs of an F. B. I. army waiting to take us in. Luckily we didn't notice any indication of that.

"Looks okay," Riley announced.

"Unless they're waiting inside to ambush us," I muttered.

"Park a couple of blocks away," Ben suggested.

"Well how long do you think we got?" Riley asked looking at me.

"I don't know," I shrugged, "I never got to go along on manhunts."

"I'm going to give them a couple of hours at least," Ben answered, "I hope."

"That's confident," I remarked sarcastically.

"He has a better idea of what they're going to do then you," Riley pointed out. I sat back an sulked. "What do we do about her?" Riley asked looking at Abigail. "I've got some duct tape in the back," he suggested.

"I second the duct tape," I said. Abigail looked at both of us horrified, but then Ben broke in calmly.

"No," he assured us, "that won't be necessary. She won't be any trouble." He turned to Abigail. "Promise you won't be any trouble."

"Promise you won't try to get us thrown in jail," I added, though I wasn't sure if she heard me.

"I promise," she consented.

"See?" Ben smirked. "She's curious."

"And she's not going to try to call the Feds on us," I grinned at Abigail for the first time.


	8. Dad vs Son Debate

**Chapter #8:**

The four of us stood outside of Ben's dad's house anxiously waiting for him to come and open the door. It did not take him long. He looked a little something like Ben though, you know, older. We had obviously disturbed Mr. Gates from some good quality relaxing since he was wearing a robe. He peered out at us in shock.

"Dad," Ben said in an upbeat voice by way of greeting. Mr. Gates looked over Ben and Abigail, both still wearing their formal cloths. I waved but decided against saying anything.

"Where's the party?" he asked.

"Uh, well," Ben began, "uh… I'm in a little trouble."

"A tiny little problem," I rolled my eyes.

"Is she pregnant?" he asked looking at Abigail.

"Well if she is," Ben responded not missing a beat, "are you going to leave the woman carrying your grandchild standing out in the cold?"

"I look pregnant?" Abigail asked Riley and I. Riley shook his head mutely. I looked Abigail over. Despite the harrowing events of the night she still looked gorgeous. Some of that, I guessed looking at my own ratty jeans and wrinkled tee-shirt, might have to do with the beautiful gown. There was also the fact that not a hair was out of place. Why do some woman get all the luck?

"Yep," I nodded.

"Maggie be nice," Ben muttered.

Looking reluctant Mr. Gates motioned us all inside. As we came in Mr. Gates pulled Ben aside.

"This better not be about that dumb treasure," he hissed. I could practically hear Ben gulp.

"If you want we still have that duct tape," I suggested. Sure Ben's dad seemed nice enough, but I had really been hoping to get to tie someone up with duct tape, if only to be able to say that I had.

"I'll let you know," Ben answered darkly looking at his dad.

"Well," Mr. Gates said, "have a seat. Make yourselves comfortable."

"Do you have any food?" I asked as I sat down on a comfortable chair and stretched my legs.

"There's some pizza," he answered, "it's still warm I think."

"Oh bless you kind sir," I cried grabbing a piece and stuffing it in my mouth. Best to eat now, before Ben broke the bad news to his dad any we were all thrown out into the street.

"Dad," Ben said, "I need the Silence Dogood Letters." There was a slight pause while Mr. Gates looked at his son with speechless horror. "Yeah," Ben sighed, "it's about the treasure."

"And he dragged you three into this nonsense?" Mr. Gates asked turning on the three of us.

"Literally," Abigail answered dryly.

"I volunteered," Riley admitted sheepishly.

"Me too," I mumbled through a mouth full of delicious pizza. Unfortunetly it came out sounding a bit like: 'EE Eww' so I wasn't sure if I was understood. I think Mr. Gates managed to get the gist of it though.

"Well unvolunteer," he snapped, "before you waste your life." Little did he know that I had already been wasting my life before volunteering so no big deal.

"Knock it off Dad," Ben sighed.

"Sure, sure," Mr. Gates continued bitterly, "I know. I'm the family kook. I have a job, a house, health insurance." Riley sat down next to me and grabbed a slice of pizza of his own. "At least I had your mother, for however short a time. At least I had you. What do you have? Him?" Mr. Gates motioned to Riley who looked a little disconcerted.

"Look," Ben said in a tired voice, "if you just give us the letters, we're gone."

"With something to wash this pizza down we'll be gone even faster," I added. I was ignored and thus had to content myself with another slice of pizza.

"You disappoint me Ben," Mr. Gates said.

"Well maybe that's the real Gates' Family legacy," Ben countered angrily, "sons who disappoint their fathers."

"That's a low blow," I commented. "Aren't we trying to get him to help us?"

"Get out," Mr. Gates said quietly, "take your troubles with you." I wondered if he would mind if I took the rest of the pizza as well. Ben, however, refused to back down.

"I found the _Charlotte_," he told his dad. This got his father's attention.

"_The Charlotte_?" His dad asked after a pause. "You mean she was a ship?"

"Yeah," Ben answered, "she was beautiful. It was amazing Dad." I guessed that you had to be a member of the Gates Family to fully appreciate it since it had not sounded like an amazing experience based on Ben and Riley's descriptions. A little too much threat of death for my tastes.

"And the treasure?" Mr. Gates asked.

"No," Ben replied looking slightly defensive, "no. But we found another clue that led us here." But this had been the wrong thing to say. Ben's Dad turned away looking bitter once more.

"Yeah," he scoffed, "and that'll lead you to another clue. And that's all you'll ever find, is another clue. Don't you get it Ben? I finally figured it out." This confused me and I said so.

"If you have the whole thing figured out then why are we still searching for the treasure?" I asked. "Why aren't we rich already?"

"The legend," Mr. Gates continued, "says that the treasure was buried to keep it from the British. But what really happened was the legend was invented to keep the British occupied searching for buried treasure. The treasure is a myth."

"That sucks," I muttered softly, "we made ourselves wanted fugitives all for nothing." I think that Riley was the only person who could hear me.

"I refuse to believe that," Ben told his dad calmly.

"Someone's in denial," I said in a sing-song voice. Everyone in the room turned to me, but apparently no one could come up with something to say in reply.

"Well," Mr. Gates said turning back to his son, "you can believe what you want, you're a grown person."

"I think I'll believe in Narnia," I said thoughtfully.

"You scare me," Riley said shaking his head.

"What am I doing?" Ben's Dad grumbled. "Do what you want Ben, do what you want."

"He's probably right," Abigail said interrupting the father son debate, "you don't even know if there is another clue."

"Well I can think of a way where we could find out," Ben answered, "and we can find out right now."

"A séance with the Founding Fathers!" I cried happily.

"I was thinking we would just examine the document," Ben told me.

"My idea was more fun," I sighed.


	9. A Good Day For Maggie

**Chapter #9:**

It wasn't long before Ben and Abigail were bent over the Declaration, utterly engrossed in trying to find the secret invisible map. They looked rather chummy together, speaking in hushed voices. It wasn't even worth the effort to listen in, they weren't saying anything interesting, (to me at least).

I, on the other hand, had not been allowed to help. I had been chased away from the Declaration, based on Ben and Abigail's belief that the pizza grease on my fingers would be bad for the priceless piece of United States history.

"You'd think I was trying to damage it or something," I muttered to no one in particular.

I sat around, amusing myself by flipping through the television channels, and eating more pizza. Unlike me, Riley had been allowed to help examine the Declaration. Ben's dad was wandering around, checking in on Ben and Abigail's progress every so often which I could tell made Ben uncomfortable.

"We found it!" Riley announced to me as he ran through the room carrying a hairdryer.

"Good for you," I told him, "now move, you're blocking the TV."

After a while there was nothing good on so I decided to go and see how finding the map was coming along.

"Dad where are the letters?" Ben was asking as I came into the room.

"I don't have them son," Mr. Gates senior said.

"What?" Ben looked crushed.

"I don't have them," his dad repeated. Ben sank into a chair. I could guess what he was thinking. We needed the letters, and we needed them before the United States government caught up with us.

"Where are they?" Ben asked.

"I donated them," Mr. Gates answered, "to the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia."

"Time to go," Ben said standing up.

"Road trip," I cheered. Abigail didn't seem quite so excited by this as I was. She was staring at the Declaration in awe.

"I still can't believe it," she murmured, "all this time no one knew what was on the back."

"The back of what?" Ben's dad asked curiously reaching out for the document we had stolen. Everyone shouted and tried to stop him, but there was nothing we could do. A glance was all he needed to recognize it. "Oh my god!"

"I know," Ben said soothingly.

"Oh my god what have you done? This is- this is the-"

"I know," Ben repeated.

"- the Declaration of Independence!" Ben's dad was speaking in something between crying and scolding with just a pinch of disbelief. Definitely some sort of panic attack.

"Yes," Abigail spoke in a calming voice as she took the Declaration from Ben's dad gently, "and it's very delicate."

"Not to mention very old," I added.

"You stole it?" Mr. Gates senior asked. Riley pointed at Ben.

"And very stolen," I concluded.

"Dad," Ben said, "I can explain but I don't have time. It was necessary and you saw the cipher." Ben was being very calming himself but his dad was having none of it.

"And that will lead to another clue," he shouted, "and that will lead to another clue!"

"He's repeating himself," I observed.

"There is no treasure," Ben's dad concluded, "I wasted twenty years of my life and now you've destroyed yours. And you pulled me into all of this."

"Well we can't have that," Ben muttered.

"Do you want me to knock him out?" I asked Ben. He sent me a pissed off look that clearly said, '_don't you dare'_. "It was just a suggestion," I shrugged, "there's no need to get testy about it."

"I should call the F.B.I. and turn you in myself," Mr. Gates senior declared glaring at his son.

"I am the F.B.I.," I told him. Riley chuckled and rolled his eyes. I kicked him and glared. There really was no reason to inform Ben's dad of the fact that I was ex-F.B.I., it would make me look bad not to mention the unnecessary confusion he would go through.

"Maggie," Ben said suddenly, "go get the duct tape from the van."

"You men-?" I began hopefully.

"Yes," Ben sighed.

"Yay!" I cried as I ran to get the duct tape.

As we drove to Philadelphia I was still glowing from the joy of finally getting to tie someone up with duct tape.

"Your dad's got a sweet ride," Riley said as he curled up and closed his eyes.

"Definitely better then the van," I agreed.

"I think we should change clothes," Ben announced suddenly from the drivers seat. "We look kind of conspicuous, don't you think?"

"Oh goody," I grinned, "a road trip followed by a shopping trip. Add that to the fact that I got to tie someone up with duct tape and this really is my best day ever, even if I didn't get to perform a séance."

"You don't need new clothes," Ben sighed looking at me, "I was talking about Abigail and I, we're still dressed for the gala. You don't look conspicuous in what you're wearing."

"Awww," I groaned.

"I'd love to go shopping too," Riley said in a slightly sarcastic voice, "but we have no money."

"We stole the Declaration of Independence," I reminded him, "they're really not going to care if we steal a couple of clothes after that."

"Here," Ben said handing Abigail a little black book, "I took this from the house. He usually tucks a few hundred dollars somewhere between those pages."

"_Common Sense_," Abigail read the cover aloud, "how appropriate."

"When are we going to get there?" Riley asked. He received no answer as Ben concentrated on driving and Abigail shook some folded bills out from between the book's pages. "I'm hungry. This car smells weird."

"I'm hungry too," I told him.

"Didn't you eat like an entire pizza?" Riley asked.

"Maybe," I answered, "but I'm still hungry."


	10. Historical Stuff

_**Author's Note:**_

_Just to warn you, if things aren't right in this chapter, my windows media player is throwing a tantrum and refusing to play the sound. So I can see the picture and read the closed captions, but there's no sound. It's very annoying and the reason I haven't posted. I'm going to try to go home this weekend and then hopefully, (fingers crossed), I'll be able to write another chapter. Sorry for the wait._

**Chapter #10:**

While Ben and Abigail got to go shopping Riley and I were sent to discover what the cipher of the back of the Declaration had said. The cipher was decoded by finding the letters in the Silence Dogood correspondences that corresponded to the numbers.

And no matter how many times Riley repeated this explanation to me I still didn't understand what we were doing.

I did understand one part however. Finding the message would involve a lot of work. Which is why I suggested we hire some little kid to do it for us.

"It'll look less conspicuous if a kid is running around studying this document instead of a pair of adults," I explained.

"You just don't want to do the work," Riley accused.

"That too," I nodded.

"Sounds good to me," Riley shrugged.

So that's how the two of us found ourselves across the street from the Franklin Institute while we sent a little kid to do the actual running back and forth. It was a nice day and after our crazy night it was a good change to have some relaxation time.

"There's the kid," I commented. He ran across the street to where we were sitting, a piece of paper clutched in his hand.

"S-S-A-N-D," he read off the paper. Riley wrote the new letters down.

"You sure this is right?" Riley asked the boy. He regarded Riley with more disgust then a kid his age should be able to express. "Okay."

"No N," the boy corrected pointing at the paper Riley was writing on.

"That is an N," Riley replied.

"It doesn't look like an N," the boy insisted stubbornly.

"You think my writing is bad," Riley told the boy, "you should see hers." I grumbled and the kid laughed.

"Sand!" I cried out reading what Riley had written. "This is awesome, we're going to the beach!"

"Somehow I don't see the Founding Fathers hanging out at the shore," Riley scoffed.

"You never know," I muttered.

"You're crazy," the boy said looking at me.

"Well I'm rubber and you're glue-" I began.

"You know what? Here," Riley handed the boy another piece of paper interrupting my clever come back, "last one. Okay? One more dollar."

"Thank you," the boy said taking the money.

"Why do I get the feeling we're overpaying this kid?" I muttered to Riley.

"Go get the last four letters," Riley instructed the boy, "go get'em chief. Come on."

"Yeah," I said as we watched him run back to the Franklin Institute, "if we finish this maybe we'll have time to get something to eat."

"How do you not just explode?" Riley asked looking curious. I shrugged, it was one of those unsolvable mysteries.

"What do we have so far?" I asked him.

"Okay," Riley looked down at the paper and began to read. "The vision to see the treasured past comes as the timely shadow crosses in front of the house of pass and… Pass and what?"

"Hey don't ask me," I laughed, "Ben's the expert."

Riley kept trying to figure out the end of the riddle while I amused myself by watching the people and cars that were passing us. Nice normal people, who I was guessing didn't have to worry about the F. B. I. catching them and throwing them into jail until they rot into nothingness. Just the other day I was like them, and the day before that I was part of the F. B. I. myself.

Life could be strange sometimes.

My musings were interrupted by Riley hitting me on the arm.

"I've got it!" he exclaimed.

"Let's eat," I cried.

"No," Riley said pulling me to my feet, "let's go tell Ben!"

"My idea was better," I sulked as we hurried off to find Ben and Abigail. We went to the Urban Outfitters where they were shopping just as they were paying. This meant that we had missed the shopping fun, which was depressing.

"Hey!" Riley called as we approached.

"Did you get it? Riley? Maggie?" Ben asked.

"Oh we got it," Riley answered.

"All by ourselves," I lied.

"The vision to see the treasured past comes as the timely shadow crosses in front of the house of Pass and Stow," Riley read aloud. "Now, 'Pass and Stow', of course referring to-"

"The Liberty Bell," Ben and Abigail said together.

"Why do you have to do that?" Riley asked.

"Never mind that," I snorted, "the real question is _how_ do you do that?"

"Well, John Pass and John Stow cast the bell," Abigail explained.

"Yeah cause everyone knows that," I muttered.

"Okay," Riley said, "well then what does the rest of this mean?"

"Please let it be a relaxing day spent at the shore eating ice cream and watching the ocean," I begged.

"Wait," Ben said, "_the vision to see the treasured past_ must refer to a way to read the map."

"Well of course it must," I rolled my eyes.

"I thought that the cipher was the map," Riley said.

"No," Ben corrected, "the cipher was a way to find the way to read the map."

"You would have thought that the founding fathers could have had a hobby other then hiding treasure," I grumbled, "I mean could they make this any more confusing?"

"And the way to read the map-" Here Abigail started speaking, finishing Ben's thought.

"- can be found where the _timely shadow_ crosses in front of the Liberty Bell!"

"Crosses in front of the house of the Liberty Bell!" Ben added. In my opinion they were way too excited about this. Though it was cool that the Liberty Bell had its own house when all I could afford was a one bedroom apartment.

"Right so the timely shadow is a specific time!" Abigail cried.

"The mating call of the sophisticated historian has several unique characteristics," I quipped.

"Uh what time?" Riley asked.

"What time? What time?" Ben repeated. I supposed the repetition of things was a family trait. "Wait a minute, wait. You're going to love this," he said to Abigail. I was insulted that the founding fathers hadn't thought to add things to their riddles that **I** would love. "Excuse me," Ben said to the lady behind the counter, "can I see one of those hundred dollar bills I paid you with?"

"So in Ben's book it's all right to steal the Declaration but to steal from an Urban Outfitters is bad?" I asked softly so that the lady couldn't hear while Ben convinced her to let him see one of the bills. "I still have duct tape after all."

"Give it up Maggie," Abigail chuckled.

"On the back of a hundred dollar bill," Ben said jumping right back into the explanations, "is an etching of Independence Hall based on a painting done in the 1780's, who- the artist was actually a friend of Benjamin Franklin's. It's wonderful."

"Fascinating," the clerk said sounding as if crazy people routinely used her store for their explanations of riddles written by the founding fathers.

"Hold this," Ben said absentmindedly giving Abigail the Declaration, which was in it's handy document bag.

"Uh Ben," I spoke up, "is it really a good idea to have Abigail hold the stolen property? She did try to take it and run once already."

"I'm not going anywhere," Abigail promised.

"Now I think," Ben continued, "that if we take a close look at this clock tower we may find the specific time." Ben grabbed a water bottle and used it to magnify the image on the back of the bill.

"What do you see?"

"2:22," Ben answered.

"What time is it now?" Abigail asked.

"Almost three," the clerk told us.

"We missed it," Abigail groaned.

"No we didn't," Riley said.

"What?" I asked. "Do you have a time machine that you've failed to mention up to this point?"

"We didn't miss it," Riley went on, "because…" he trailed off looking at Ben and Abigail in surprise, "I know something about history that you don't know?"

"The world is coming to an end," I said looking around for the hellfire and rivers of blood I expected to see at any second.

"I'd be very excited to learn about it Riley," Ben said in a tone of forced calm.

"Well hold on one second," he said, "let me just… let me just take in this moment. This is cool. Is this how you feel all the time? Cause, you know, except for now, of course." He was becoming slightly incoherent and I wondered exactly what it felt like to know something everyone else didn't. It was probably a nice feeling.

"Riley!" Abigail snapped.

"All right," Riley said. "What I know is that daylight savings wasn't established until World War I. If it's 3:00 p.m. now, okay, that would mean in 1776 it would be 2:00 p.m."

"Let's go," Abigail grinned.

"Riley," Ben said, "you're a genius."

"Don't let it get to your head," I advised.

"Do you actually know who the first person to suggest daylight savings was?" he asked.

"Ben Franklin," both Abigail and Ben answered. Riley stamped his feet in annoyance.

"I didn't know," I assured him.


	11. The Chase

_**Author's Note:**_

_Once again it's been a while. This was a fun chapter to write, what with the chase and all. Also having them run around Independence Hall was fun. Remember way back in the day when there was only a rope keeping people from where the Liberty Bell was? Then that deranged guy hit it with a hammer and now it's behind glass. Oh well. Thanks to everyone who reviewed the last chapter and to everyone who reviews this one!_

**Chapter 11:**

"Imagine," our guide said, "it's impact back in the eighteenth century. It could have been seen for miles around, which was exactly it's purpose. Because it served as a beacon, as it were."

Our guide had been waxing nostalgically about the good old days before indoor pluming for about ten minutes, which was ten minutes too long in my opinion. This was the type of activity that was best suited for people like Ben and Abigail, but it was not so much my cup of tea.

"Finally," I sighed when Ben and Abigail broke away. Riley and I followed, trying to look casual and not like we were doing anything illegal in the slightest. When we came to a stairway there was a rope going across it. A sign which read, 'No admittance. Employees only.' Hung from the rope.

It took the four of us all of two seconds to step over it and continue up the stairs.

"If they'd really been serious about keeping people out they would have made it more difficult," I reasoned aloud as we hurried along continuing up to the top floor. The door to the interior of the clock face wasn't even locked.

"Good stuff," Riley said looking around as we walked through the inside of the famous clock. We opened a door and climbed up onto the roof. "What bell is this?"

"It's the Centennial Bell," Ben answered, "it replaced the Liberty Bell in 1876." He checked his watch.

"Is it time?" I asked. Ben nodded and we all looked to see where the shadow would fall.

"There it is," Abigail said.

"Who wants to climb around on the roof?" Riley asked.

"Not me," I answered, "I have a horrible sense of balance."

"All right," Ben sighed, "I'm going to go down there and you all meet me in the signing room. Okay?"

"All right," Abigail said to Riley and I, "let's go."

"3:22," Riley reminded us as he followed, "my idea."

"I could have good ideas too you know," I spoke up.

"If it's about food maybe," Riley chuckled. We bickered back and forth. To Abigail's credit she didn't try to strangle us, though she did tell us to knock it off so we wouldn't attract attention once we'd reached the main level. We tried to look inconspicuous as another tour group came through. It was as they were leaving that Ben reappeared.

"Hey," Riley greeted him, "what'd you score?"

"I found this." Ben held up a battered pair of glasses for our inspection. The dirt and the dust betrayed them as old. The fact that instead of two clear lenses there were six multi-colored lenses betrayed them as weird. Riley took them to examine. "Some kind of ocular device," Ben pointed out. "The vision to see the treasured past? Let me take this." He took the Declaration and went to unroll it.

"You know for the laughing stock of the historical community you're pretty good at this treasure hunting thing," I told Ben.

"Thank you Maggie," he said looking as if he wasn't sure if it was a total compliment.

"They're like early American X-Ray specs!" Riley exclaimed.

"Benjamin Franklin invented something like these," Abigail informed us.

"I think he invented these," Ben replied.

"So what do we do with them?" Riley asked.

"They were invented by Benjamin Franklin, one of the Founding Fathers," I said in an excited voice, "so obviously we're going to sell them and make a bundle!"

"No," Ben said giving me a glare. "We look through it."

"Or that?" I grumbled.

Together Ben and Abigail unfurled the stolen document that was going to land us all in jail forever while Riley looked around the room through the Franklin glasses. I looked around, nervous that another tour would march through and catch us in the act. Suddenly Ben let out a deep sigh.

"What?" Riley asked.

"It's just," Ben explained, "that the last time this was here it was being signed."

For some odd reason I got the mental image of the two being reunited by a talk show host on some television show. It would be an interesting concept.

"Now all we need to do is dig up the corpses of everyone who signed and the band will be back together," I commented.

"Ben there's another tour coming so let's move this along," Riley said. "Maggie stop being crazy, it's distracting." I pouted while the others carefully turned the Declaration over and Ben put on the spectacles. When he looked through them he gasped.

"Whoa," he breathed. "Wow."

"What do you see?"

"What is it?" Riley asked. "Is it a treasure map?"

"I am not crazy," I told them.

"It says '_Heere at the wall_' spelled with two E's." Ben announced. "Take a look." He held out the spectacles and all three of us reached for them. Abigail won and put them on.

"I guess they didn't have spell check back then," I observed, "although I always got the impression that the founding fathers were smart."

"Things were spelled differently back then sometimes," Ben pointed out.

"Sure they were."

"Ah," Abigail said quietly as she peered at the Declaration. "Wow."

"Why can't they just say: _Go to this place and here's the treasure, spend it wisely_?" Riley asked.

"I would totally do that," I grinned. "Except when they got to the place there would be no treasure, just a sign saying, Gothca!"

"Oh no," Ben moaned.

"Do you think they did that?" I asked. If this treasure hunt was all for nothing then I was going to need time to come up with a new plan to impress my former bosses at the F. B. I. to get my job back.

Abigail and Riley looked in the direction Ben was looking. There was a window there. They both echoed his "Oh no" sentiments and I asked impatiently what was up.

"It's Ian," Ben explained.

"Oh! That is bad."

"How'd they find us?" Riley asked.

"Well Ian has nearly unlimited sources," Ben pointed out, "and he's smart."

"I don't think we can get out of here without being spotted," Abigail said.

"We could set something on fire," I suggested.

"Just try and curb the crazy for a minute," Riley snapped.

"We don't want them to have the Declaration or the glasses," Ben said, thinking aloud, "but we especially don't want them to have them both together."

"So what do we do?" Riley inquired.

"We separate the lock from the key," Ben explained, "we're splitting up."

"Good idea," Abigail agreed.

"Really?" Was all Riley had to say.

"Maybe we can all meet at a nice restaurant for lunch?" I was ignored as Ben took the Declaration out of its holder and took the spectacles. He gave the Declaration itself to Abigail and Riley.

"Meet me at the car and call if you have any problems," he finished.

"Like if we get caught or killed?" Riley said.

"Yeah," Ben answered, "that would be a big problem."

"So that's a no to the restaurant idea?" I asked.

"Just come with me," Ben growled. I followed him. "Take care of her," he said over his shoulder to Abigail and Riley.

"I will," they both answered at the same time.

As bold as anything Ben and I stepped out of the building and walked through the courtyard.

"Aren't we going to run?" I asked as I noticed to goons following us.

"Not yet," he answered.

"How about now?"

"Wait…"

We came to a street. As we crossed it a bus drove behind us, keeping our pursuers from seeing us.

"Now," Ben hissed. We began to run as fast as we could. Probably faster then I had ever run before. It turns out that armed goons are a big motivation for exercising. We sprinted up in between a line of cars. They honked but luckily none of them hit us. Unluckily none of them hit the people chasing of either.

We left the street and came across a cemetery. Ben opened the gate and we darted in. One of them began to catch up. There was another part of the cemetery which was gated. Ben opened it and after I'd followed him in he shut it so the guy behind us couldn't get in.

It was then that they guy pulled out his gun. He got off about four rounds as Ben and I dived behind the headstones. He continued to shoot.

"How ironic," I said in a bitter tone, "we're going to die in a cemetery."

Then we saw the other guy. He'd managed to go around and get into the area we were in. He stepped towards where we were and aimed.

Ben and I threw ourselves out of the way, scrambled to our feet, and ran again.

"I hate running," I panted as we left the cemetery through a large brick gate. Ben stopped, posing himself around the corner of the gate. When one of the guys chasing us charged around the bend Ben whacked him across the face with the thing that had previously held the Declaration. I cheered as Ben punched him and the guy fell to the ground.

Just then the other guy chasing us caught up.

"Aww come on," Ben groaned as we started to run again.

"These guys are really annoying," I shouted. We turned a corner and hit a locked gate. With no time to force our way through we were forced to continue on the way we had been going.

The next gate we reached was open. There was some scaffolding there, which we started to climb. We hadn't been climbing for long when the bullets began to fly at us again. Reaching the stairs we began to climb, but heavy footfalls behind made it clear that we had not lost the guy pursuing us.

At the top of the stairway Ben got onto the roof of a house and began to run across it. I groaned and cursed, but followed him anyway.

"Lucky the houses are right next to each other," I panted.

Just as I said this we reached the end of the row houses.

"Crap," I sighed.

"Hey Gates," the man behind us yelled, "enough man!" Ben put his hands in the air and I followed suit. "Give me the document," he demanded.

"Give us the gun," I shouted back. The man chuckled, but not in a nice way.

"All right Phil," Ben sighed. He threw the empty document holder over to Phil. It slid, almost falling off of the roof. Phil managed to catch it and opened it up, revealing the fact that there was nothing there.

"Sucker," I called. Ben and I had already made our escape.

I was not so smug later when we reached Ben's car to find the F. B. I. waiting for us.


	12. Caught By The F B I

**Chapter 12:**

Finding yourself cuffed to a table by the F. B. I. is never reassuring. Also it didn't look as if I was going to get any special treatment because I had formally been a member of the Bureau myself. Ben was seated next to me. He had just told Agent Sadusky what had happened.

"That's some story," my former boss remarked.

"Well it's the same story I tried to tell you guys before the Declaration was stolen," Ben pointed out.

"By you," Sadusky added.

"No," Ben said patiently, "by Ian. I stole it to stop him. I did it alone. Dr. Chase was not involved. And Ian still ended up with the Declaration of Independence."

"Because of you," Sadusky said.

"I don't think he likes us," I whispered to Ben.

"And you," Sadusky said as he turned to me, "what do you have to say for yourself?" He did not sound happy. Just take angry and multiply it by rage and add fury and you might have an idea as to Sadusky's current emotion which was being spewed at me.

"Well," I began slowly, "I had a plan to get my job back."

"And your plan to get back into the F.B.I.'s good graces involved stealing this country's most beloved symbol of our freedom?" he asked with raised eyebrows. "How was that supposed to work?"

"Umm… I uhh… you see-" I mumbled as I tried to figure out how to defend myself and my actions. "I don't remember the plan," I finally admitted. "But I did have one." Sadusky gave me a '_yeah right_' look.

"So here's your options," Sadusky told us. " Door number one: you go to prison for a very long time."

"Pass!" I said.

"Door number two: we are going to get back the Declaration of Independence. You help us find it, and you still go to prison for a very long time, but you feel better inside."

"Also pass!" I said.

"Is there a door that doesn't lead to prison?" Ben asked.

"Yeah," I nodded, "that would work better for us."

"Someone's got to go to prison," Sadusky laughed.

"Crap," I muttered sinking back in the chair.

"So what are these for?" Sadusky asked picking up the glasses we had found at Independence Hall.

"It's a way to read the map," Ben answered. He didn't sound upbeat, which I could understand. If only we had found some sort of prison escaping device, that would have been helpful.

"Right," Sadusky answered, "Knights Templar. Free Masons. Invisible treasure map." I couldn't tell if he was mocking us or not. Usually people mocked me, but they were less inclined to mock Ben. After all, he was a master thief whether he liked the title or not. "So what'd it say?"

"_Heere at the wall_," Ben told him, "nothing else. It's just another clue."

I wondered if Ben was thinking about his father's rant about clues as well. At the time I had thought he was a little crazy, but I had to admit I was starting to see his point. Sadusky and several other agents were discussing how to find Ian. Nobody asked me. Ben was staring at the glasses that Sadusky was absentmindedly playing with. He had his intense clue solving face on. He didn't ask for my help either.

"There's more to it," Ben whispered.

Just as I was going to ask him to elaborate his phone rang. It startled me and I jumped a little. The F. B. I. agents began preparing to tap and trace the call. When they were ready Sadusky handed the phone to Ben.

"Yes," he answered. There was a pause. "Uh, chained to a desk." There was a longer pause. "New York." Then a another pause. "And I'm supposed to believe that?" One more pause. "I'll be there." After another minute everyone was taking off their headphones and Ben had hung up the phone.

"Come on guys," I pleaded, "what just happened?"

Ben explained that Ian wanted to trade the Declaration, (and the pipe that he and Ben had found at the Charlotte), for the glasses. The trade would take place in New York on the deck of the USS Intrepid. Ian had requested the Ben and I be alone.

Soon the F. B. I. agents, Ben, and I were all in New York. As Ben and I walked around the ship our every movement was watched by nearly a dozen agents with even a couple in helicopters circling overhead.

"Do you think we blend in?" I asked Ben.

Both of us were wearing earpieces and mikes so that we were connected to all of the agents watching us. We couldn't speak or be spoken to without them hearing. We could hear them as they talked about keeping us in their sight. It was kind of nice to be the center of so much attention. On the other hand these were the people who wanted us to go to prison for a very long time.

"Stay with the program," Sadusky warned us as Ben and I waded through a herd of Boy Scouts.

"I hope your agents are all under four feet tall and wearing little scarves," Ben commented looking at the group, "otherwise Ian's going to know they're here."

"Do think Ian really expected the F. B. I. to just let us go?" I asked.

"Good point," Ben nodded.

"As soon as he shows you the Declaration we'll move in," Sadusky assured us. "Don't try anything. Just let us handle it."

"You're the boss," I told him.

"Stop sucking up," Sadusky ordered.

"Yes sir."

"You know Agent Sadusky," Ben mused, "something I've noticed about fishing. It never works out so well for the bait."

I squirmed a little, having not thought about things it quite those terms before. But now that Ben said it I knew he was right. We were bait. The F. B. I. were the fishers and Ben was the circling fish. Neither of them really cared about the survival of the bait. I gulped.

The agents had begun discussing a helicopter which was coming towards us. Apparently they believed that Ian might be on it.

"Gates," Sadusky said over the earpiece, "are you with me?"

"Well I'm sure not against you if that's what you're asking," Ben replied.

Suddenly there was a slight buzzing in my earpiece. Based on Ben's look of confusion it was happening on his as well. I couldn't really hear the agents and I doubted they could hear me. It could have been just some interference from some equipment close by.

Or it could be Ian making his move.

"Hello Ben," someone standing next to us said. It wasn't the man who had been pointed out to me as Ian, but rather a tall bald man. I recognized him as one of Ian's goons. "Thomas Edison needed only one way to make a light bulb," the man continued. "Sound familiar?"

I remembered the day that Ben, Riley, and I had been in the Library of Congress and Ben had told that to me and Riley as part of his convincing us to help him. The unknown helicopter swooped in with a roar, making it hard to hear anything. The goon spoke to Ben, though I didn't hear what was said.

Then the helicopter left. In my ear I could hear the resumed chatter of the F. B. I. agents. They knew that something was wrong. I wanted to ask Ben what the goon had said, but I knew better. Instead I just followed Ben as he walked purposefully away. We reached the observation deck and Ben looked over the edge.

"Sadusky," Ben said, "I'm still not against you. But I found door number three, and I'm taking it."

"Move in!" Sadusky ordered. "Move in on Gates."

The agents closest to us were running, but they had only taken a few steps when Ben grabbed my arm and pulled me over the railing. I screamed before hitting the water a couple of seconds behind Ben.

A man in full scuba gear appeared out of no where. He offered us the oxygen mask and first Ben then I took a gulp of fresh air. Then we took hold of a little device that shot us through the murky water much faster then if we had been swimming.

We broke the surface far enough away that we could barely hear the F. B. I. helicopters. I followed Ben as he climbed a ladder out of the river and onto a street.

"Hello Ben," I could hear someone saying, "welcome to New Jersey."


	13. Heere At The Wall

_**Author's Note:**_

_Just so you know Ben Gates will be called Ben but his father will be referred to as Mr. Gates. Just so that you aren't confused. I'm hoping to update more reasonably soon, though I won't promise because obviously I've said that a million times. Thank you to everyone who has read and especially to those who have reviewed._

**Chapter #13:**

Ben's men had given us a change of dry clothes, for which I was very grateful, and we were in a car on our way to meet with Ian. Shaw, the bald goon, had told us that Abigail was calling all of the shots. He had also grumbled that she refused to shut up, causing Ben and I to chuckle.

Shaw's phone rang and he answered it. After a second he handed it to Ben.

"It's for you," he said. Ben took the phone. He held it so that I could hear what was said as well.

"Hello," Ben said.

"Hi sweetie," Abigail said on the other end, "how's your day going?"

"Uh interesting dear," he answered. "So what, you're working with Ian now?"

"It turns out that helping someone escape from F. B. I. custody is a criminal act," Abigail explained to us, "and he's the only criminal we knew. So we called him and made a deal."

"Well thanks for the jail break," I said.

"You're all right?" Ben asked her. "You're safe?"

"Yeah," Abigail assured him, "we both are."

"Riley and Abigail aren't the ones who were captured by the F. B. I. and then forced to jump into the Hudson River," I pointed out.

"Riley's right here," Abigail told us, "doing something clever with a computer."

"Hey," Riley said as his voice came over the phone, "I'm tracking you through the GPS in Shaw's phone. They take a turn anywhere we don't want and we'll know it so don't worry."

"If Ian tries to double cross us," Abigail continued, " we can call the F. B. I. and tell them right where you are and where to find Ian."

"And where is that?" Ben asked.

"Right across that street from where we're hiding," she answered sounding smug, "at the intersection of Wall Street and Broadway."

"Well," Ben grinned, "you figured out the clue."

"The clue?" I asked.

"It's simple," Abigail bragged, "Heere at the wall, Wall Street and Broadway."

"I'm still not following," I confessed. "Just because you say something in a definitive tone doesn't make it any clearer."

"I'll explain later," Ben promised.

"Ben," Abigail sounded uneasy, "there is a catch. We made Ian believe he could have the treasure. It was the only way we could get this far."

"He's here," I could hear Riley saying in the background.

The car pulled over and Ben, the goons, and I all got out of the car.

A man came over and greeted Ben. It took me a minute but then I recognized him as Ian from when he and his goons had been chasing us around Philadelphia.

"And you are?" Ian asked as he noticed me.

"I'm Maggie," I told him.

"F. B. I.?" He looked wary so I answered quickly that I no longer was in their employment. "Then we don't have any problems," he said looking relieved.

"As long as you don't try to kill us again," I corrected him. "That sort of thing would be a big problem." He laughed and I felt even more uneasy. Then he turned to Ben and they got down to business.

"The Declaration of Independence and the meerschaum pipe," Ian said placing them both on the top of the parked car, "all yours."

"That's it?" Ben asked.

"That's it," Ian nodded.

"Take them and run," I suggested. Ian moved his coat slightly to reveal a concealed gun. I put my hands in the air in a motion of surrender. "Just joking," I chuckled weakly. Ian looked back at Ben, seemingly deciding that I wasn't worth the effort.

"I knew you'd keep your promise," he said, "now where is it? Where's my treasure?"

"It's at the nearest police station," I told him, "better hurry."

"It's right here," Ben answered ignoring me. "The map said 'Heere at the wall' spelled with two E's. Wall Street follows the path of an actual wall that the original Dutch settlers built as a defense to keep the British out."

"Didn't really work the way they hoped it would," I pointed out.

"The main gate," Ben continued, "was located at a street called De Heere, also two E's. Later De Heere Street was renamed Broadway after the British got in."

"Part of the if you conquer it you get to rename it policy that most cities have," I added.

"So," Ben concluded, "Heere at the wall: Broadway, Wall Street." Ben pointed to the corresponding street signs. "Cheerio." Ben picked up the pipe and the declaration and made to walk away.

"Happy digging!" I told Ian.

"Just a moment Ben," Ian called.

"Ian," Ben sighed, "if you break our deal the F. B. I. will be only a few minutes behind you. You might get away, you might not."

"Is that all the map said?" Ian asked, taking a step closer to us.

"Every word," Ben answered. But he had taken to long to answer, it was clear even to me that he was being less then truthful.

"Oh Ben," Ian chuckled. "You know the key to running a convincing bluff?"

"Sunglasses," I guessed.

"Every once in a while," Ian told us, "you've got to be holding all the cards."

"What?" I asked. "You have to be the dealer or you have to steal the whole deck?"

Ian nodded at a goon who was standing next to a parked car. Seeing the signal the goon opened one of the back doors. Sitting in the backseat, wrists bound with duct tape, was Ben's dad.

"Is there anything else you want to tell me?" Ian asked.

"Trinity Church," Ben said tearing his eyes away from the car that his father was in, "we have to go inside Trinity Church."

"Are we going to pray that this whole situation resolves itself peacefully?" I asked curious.

"It's a clue," Ben explained.

"Good," Ben said, "excellent." It was not excellent from where I was standing but I decided not to mention this aloud. "Well why don't you ask Dr. Chase and Riley to join us? I'm sure they're around here somewhere."

When we went into the church the goons brought Mr. Gates Senior in as well.

"Are you all right?" Ben asked his dad.

"What do you think?" he asked sounding considerably annoyed. "I'm a hostage."

"Sit down," one of the goons said and Ben's dad and I sat down in a pew while Ben and Ian went towards the alter to talk.

"Who's better at tying people up with duct tape," I asked, "Ian or me?" Mr. Gates Senior glared at me in response so I decided not to push it.

"Let him go Ian," Ben pleaded.

"When we find the treasure," Ian insisted.

"No," Ben said angrily, "now. Or you can figure out the clues for yourself. Good luck."

"They're very difficult clues," I added. "Lots of history things that normal people never bother to learn."

"Ben," Ian said, "I don't think you fully appreciate the gravity of the situation." The back door opened and two more goons led Riley and Abigail into the church. They sat down a couple of pews behind Mr. Gates and me. I waved to them, but they didn't wave back. Obviously getting captured had put them in a bad mood. I, on the other hand, was sort of getting used to it. "Let's have a look at that map."

Ben and Ian sat down and proceeded to roll out the Declaration. Then Ben put on the glasses and began to read the map, adjusting the different lenses on the glasses as he went.

"It's uh," he finally said, "it's really quite something. It really is remarkable. Take a look." Ian took the glasses and also read the map.

"Parkington Lane," he said.

"Beneath Parkington Lane," Ben clarified.

"But why would the map lead us here, then take us somewhere else?" Ian asked. "What's the purpose?"

"The Founding Fathers had a sick sense of humor," I suggested.

"Just another clue," Mr. Gates spoke up.

"Dad," Ben said warningly.

"I think you're right," I whispered to Mr. Gates.

"Parkington Lane has to be around here somewhere," Ben mused.

"A street inside a church?" Ian asked.

"Not inside," Ben corrected, "beneath. Beneath the church."

"Somehow I don't see this leading anywhere pleasant," I commented.


	14. Thinking Light Thoughts

**Chapter #14:**

As we went single file through dusty church corridors escorted by numerous armed goons my feeling of impending unpleasantness only grew.

"I'm so sorry Ben," Abigail apologized when she got close enough to Ben.

"None of this is your fault," he assured her.

A goon interrupted them and we all continued on into a more dark and more dank section where no tourist had ever dared tread. As we trudged through the furnace room I was reminded of how Hansel and Gretel had defeated the witch in the fairy tale and wondered if there was any chance of convincing Ian to lean into the fire for some reason.

"Look," Mr. Gates whispered as he and I passed close to Ben while the goons weren't listening, "cooperation only lasts as long as the status quo is unchanged."

"Okay," I nodded, "then I vote not changing the status quo in any way."

"It's not that simple," Mr. Gates continued to explain to Ben, "as soon as this guy gets to wherever this thing ends he won't need you anymore. Or any of us."

"Not even me?" I asked.

"Especially not you," Mr. Gates snapped. "There is no conceivable reason that anyone would need you."

Realizing that he was only saying such hurtful things because I had tied him up with duct tape earlier I tried not to take him seriously. After all, there were loads of things that I could do to help. Why would anyone say otherwise? Maybe he was jealous.

"So we find a way to make sure the status quo changes in our favor," Ben said.

"How?" Mr. Gates asked.

"I'm still working on it," Ben admitted.

"Well I guess I'd better work on it too then," Mr. Gates muttered.

"If I might make the suggestion," I spoke up, "a gun might be a useful accessory in this plan. Or perhaps a chainsaw." Ben and his father gave me identical exasperated looks which I ignored.

"Hey!" Riley called from in front of us. "Hey I found it… him!"

"It's a name," Ian told us as we all crowded around to see. It was a grave set into the wall, with the name '_Parkington Lane'_ written on it. Ben got close to examine it.

"Parkington Lane," he read. "He was a third degree master mason of the Blue- Hey!"

With a cry Ben jumped aside as one of Ian's goons came at the grave with a sledge hammer. With a couple of swings the plaque was gone revealing a coffin covered with dust and spider webs. Ben, Ian, and two goons pulled the coffin out of the wall. Before they could put it down, however, the wood in the bottom of the coffin gave out and the whole skeleton dropped out. Everyone cried out and stepped back, alarmed.

"Careful no one steps in him," one of the goons said.

"Death isn't pretty is it?" I mused aloud bending over to look at the bones. They lowered the coffin over the body.

Then the group turned their attention on the hole in the wall that the coffin had come from, where a small tunnel had been revealed. The bald goon, Shaw, shone a flashlight inside. Cobwebs, moss, dust, and countless other nasty things coated the walls.

"Okay," Riley said as he looked in, "who wants to go down the creepy tunnel inside the tomb first?"

"Not it!" I cried.

"Right," Ian said addressing his goons, "McGregor, Viktor you stay here. And if anyone should come out without me, well… use your imagination."

"Oh," I said raising a hand, "can I volunteer for that assignment? I'm really good at waiting **outside** creepy tombs."

"McGregor and Viktor are the only ones staying here," Ian said, "the rest of us are going in." He motioned towards the tunnel. "Shall we?"

Taking the proffered flashlight Ben crawled in, the rest of us following one by one. After a little bit we came to a section where the tunnel became large enough for us each to stand up. Ben took a torch from the wall.

"You got a light?" he asked Ian, who lit the torch. The light did nothing to increase the appeal of the tunnel, mostly as it revealed a set of stairs. "Careful," Ben cautioned as we passed him, "watch your step." Then I heard him say, "Come here," and looked around to see him bestowing a short kiss on Abigail.

"Why does that never happen to me?" A goon asked as they broke apart.

"You don't want anyone to answer that," I advised him.

"What's this?" I heard Ian ask from ahead of us. Going to join him and Ben I saw that the tunnel had turned into a stairway, with some crazy contraption attached to it.

"It's a chandelier," Ben answered. He touched the torch to it so that it lit the whole space. Not only were we on a ancient wooden staircase, but the staircase was perched over the edge of a seemingly endless cavern.

"Wow," Riley gasped.

"Look at the elevators," Ben said pointing.

"They don't look like elevators to me," I announced eyeing the wooden planks nailed together and attached to a string with distrust.

"It's a dumbwaiter system," Mr. Gates explained.

"How do a bunch of guys with hand tools build all this?" A goon asked.

"Same way they built the pyramids and the Great Wall of China," Ben answered.

"How's that?" I asked.

"The aliens helped them," Riley answered.

"Ah-ha," I nodded, "it all makes sense now." Without looking I could tell that the historically minded were probably glaring but I thought that Riley was on to something.

"Right," Ian said, "let's go. What are we waiting for?"

"I'm not going out on that thing," Mr. Gates protested, "two hundred years of termite damage and rot-"

"Dad," Ben interrupted calmly, "do what he says."

"Wait," I said, "I think I'm agreeing with Mr. Gates here. This doesn't seem safe at all."

"Just walk carefully Maggie," Ben using a stern tone.

With a sigh I followed Mr. Gates and tried to think light thoughts. Feathers were light. Feathers and flowers and paper and fuzzy cotton balls and tissues and elephants- No, not elephants. I shook my head and tried to return to light thought, but now I was stuck on elephants and rhinos and hippos.

"We're right under the Trinity Graveyard," Mr. Gates told us. "That's probably why no one ever found this."

"Somehow the mental image of skeletons in the ceiling above us is not reassuring," I grumbled.

As I said this everything began to shake.

"What is that?" Riley asked.

"Subway," Ian said as the rumbling stopped.

We had barely begun to move forward again when there was a crash from behind me and a frightened yell. I whirled around to see that there was a hole in the stairway where Shaw, the bald goon, had been a moment before.

"Oh god Shaw!" Ian shouted. Shaw hit another section of the stair, and went right through it. His yelling faded and we couldn't even see him anymore. I gulped and went back to thinking light thoughts and regretting never having been on a diet.

Unfortunately just as I was regretting that the stairs beneath us rocked with a great crack. Riley jumped to a different part of the stairs. Ben was sliding towards the abyss, but he was caught by Abigail who was still on a sturdy part.

Ian, his remaining goon, Mr. Gates, and I managed to jump onto a nearby elevator. Ian only just made it before the section of stairs we had been on collapsed and tumbled down into the darkness.

Ben and Abigail had managed to get themselves onto an elevator of their own. They were about to pull Riley on with them when the ropes holding their elevator snapped and they plummeted down past us. It smashed into another section of stairs, but remained teetering and unstable. The nearly broken elevator swung back and forth ominously. Ben only just managed to catch Abigail's hand before she slid off.

"Get down there!" Mr. Gates shouted to Ian. "Get down there!" Ian, however made no move to go and help. "We need rope," Mr. Gates said to me.

But the Declaration of Independence, which Ben had been in charge of carrying, was also on the elevator and as it rocked back and forth it became clear that the priceless document was about to fall off.

"Do you trust me?" I heard Ben ask.

"Yes," Abigail answered.

Ben dropped Abigail. She fell, but landed on a nearby ledge. Ben lunged for the Declaration, catching it just before it toppled off the broken elevator. A second later the elevator crashed so that it was nearly vertical, with Ben just managing to hang on to a board, which seemed to be slipping by the second.

"Hang on!" Abigail called.

Mr. Gates and I were ripping the rope off of the railing that went around the elevator we were on. It didn't come loose easily, but through pulling at it and the rotten wood it was connected to we finally got a long enough section free.

"Son!" Mr. Gates called as we threw the rope down to Ben. Holding onto it tightly Ben swung from the broken elevator to the ledge that Abigail was on.

"I'm sorry," we heard him saying, "I'm sorry I dropped you. I had to save the Declaration."

"No don't be," Abigail assured him, "I would have done exactly the same thing to you."

"Really?" Ben asked.

"I would have dropped you both," Riley said as he joined them. "Freaks."

"They are very strange," I added. "I love you, but I love an old piece of paper more isn't nearly as romantic as you two may think. Certainly not Valentine's Day card material."

The still working elevator that Ian, the goon, Mr. Gates, and I were on was lowered to where Ben, Abigail, and Riley were.

"Get on," Ian ordered.

"I want to get off," I whined.

"Ian," Ben said slowly, "it's not worth it."

"Do you imagine any one of your lives is more valuable to me then Shaw's?" he asked. Nobody felt like answering Ian aloud. "We go on."

"The status quo," Mr. Gates reminded Ben, "keep the status quo." Ben nodded and we continued onward.


	15. The Doomed Treasure Hunters

_**Author's Note:**_

_This chapter was supposed to be the last chapter, but it ended up getting too long so there will be one more. Sorry for the wait, I forgot to bring National Treasure with me on vacation and then forgot where I left it. Anyway I am hoping to post the next chapter soon. Thanks for reading!_

**Chapter #15:**

The elevator finally came to a little dock.

"Now what?" Riley asked.

"This is where is all leads," Mr. Gates told him.

"The end of the line," I muttered darkly.

"Okay," Ben said, "let's go." I got off, grateful to be off of the damned device, even though I didn't know what horror we would come across next. There was a small stone room, mostly empty. Aside from some carvings in the wall the most decoration that was there was a single lantern, hanging in the center of the room. Mr. Gates used a torch to light the lantern.

"What is this?" Riley asked.

"So where's the treasure?" The goon asked.

"Forget that," I said under my breath, "where's a way out?"

"Well?" Ian demanded looking at Ben.

Ben said nothing.

"This is it?" Riley asked. "We came all this way for a dead end?"

"Yes," Ben sighed.

"There's got to be something more," Riley insisted.

"Riley there's nothing more!" Ben snapped.

"Another clue-"

"No," Ben yelled, "there are no more clues! That's it, okay. It's over! End of the road. The treasure's gone. Moved. Taken somewhere else."

"Well that's disappointing," I muttered giving the empty room the evil eye.

"You're not playing games with me are you Ben?" Ian asked. "Hmm?" Ben didn't answer fast enough… again. "You know where it is," Ian accused.

"… No…"

"Okay," Ian said to his goon, "go."

"Hey," Ben said, "wait a minute." We all ran after Ian and the goon, calling for them to wait.

"We'll be trapped!" Riley called.

"There's no food here and I'm hungry!" I shouted.

"You can't just leave us here," Abigail protested as Ian and his goon got onto the elevator and began to raise it.

"Yes I can," Ian said firmly, "unless Ben tells me the next clue."

"There isn't another clue," Ben insisted.

"Ian listen," Riley broke in, "why don't you come back down here and we can talk through this together."

"Don't speak again," Ian ordered pulling out his gun and pointing it at Riley.

"Okay," Riley answered.

I opened my mouth.

"You too," Ian snapped.

"I didn't say anything," I grumbled.

"You were going to," Ian pointed out.

I had been about to point out that violence never solved anything, but somehow I doubted that Ian would agree with me so I decided not to even try making my point. It didn't seem important enough to get shot over.

"The clue," Ian pressed Ben. "Where's the treasure?"

"The lantern," Mr. Gates spoke up.

"Dad!" Ben protested.

"The status quo has changed son," Mr. Gates pointed out.

"Don't," Ben pleaded.

"It's part of freemason teachings," Mr. Gates explained to Ian who lowered his gun. "In King Solomon's Temple there was a winding staircase. It signified the journey that had to be made to find the light of truth."

"Hey," I said softly, "we just did the winding stair thing! Does that mean we found the light of truth? And what exactly is a light of truth? Is it valuable or more a conversation piece you keep in your living room?"

"Shut up," Riley hissed out of the corner of his mouth.

"The lantern is the clue," Mr. Gates finished.

"And what does it mean?" Ian asked.

"Boston," Ben answered unwillingly, "It's Boston."

"The Old North Church in Boston," Mr. Gates clarified, "where Thomas Newton hung a lantern in the steeple to signal Paul Revere that the British were coming. One if by land, two if by sea. One lantern. Under the winding staircase of the steeple, that's where we have to look."

"Thank you," Ian said as he once more prepared to leave.

"Hey," Mr. Gates protested, "you have to take us with you."

"Why?" Ian asked. "So you can escape in Boston? Besides, with you out of the picture there's less baggage to carry." I resented being called baggage but as I'd decided before, it wasn't worth being shot over to bring the subject up.

"What if we lied?" Mr. Gates asked desperately.

This caused Ian to pull out the gun again. I tried to duck down out of sight and look non-annoying.

"Did you?" Ian asked.

"What if there's another clue?" Ben asked.

"Then I'll know right where to find you," Ian answered. "See you Ben." And with that Ian and his goon rose up and out of sight, ignoring our cries.

"All right," I said turning to everyone, "I call to order the first meeting of the doomed treasure hunters. Our first item of business is food. We don't have any. Thus our only option will be to resort to cannibalism. Ben, you're first because a) you are the tallest so you'll last the longest and b) because in many ways this is all your fault."

"I think you're getting a little ahead of yourself," Abigail said.

"But I'm hungry!" I whined.

"We're all going to die," Riley announced.

"It's going to be okay Riley," Ben reassured him. "I'm sorry I yelled at you."

"It's okay kiddo," Mr. Gates added as he and Ben led the way back into the little stone room.

"Somehow I'm not seeing the 'okay' part of our situation," I grumbled.

"What's going on?" Abigail asked. "The British came by sea. It was two lanterns, not one."

"Ian needed another clue," Mr. Gates shrugged, "so we gave it to him."

"It was a fake," Riley chuckled, "it was a fake clue."

"It's sort of sad that your dad's a better liar then you," I said to Ben. Ben, however, was once again in clue solving mode so I doubted he really heard me at all.

"That means," Riley continued, "by the time Ian figures it out and comes back here… we'll still be trapped and he'll shoot us then. Either way we're going to die."

"It seemed so promising up until the shooting part," I muttered.

"Nobody's going to die," Ben announced, "there's another way out."

"Where?" Riley asked.

"Please tell me there won't be anymore elevators," I added.

"We're going out through the treasure room," Ben told us triumphantly. Ben pressed a button on the wall, and with the help of his father pushed a secret door open. We all rushed through the door. I wasn't sure if I was more excited about the treasure, or getting out of this hellish place.

But there was nothing in this new room.

It was another barely furnished room. There were some carvings on the wall and a few scattered objects, which appeared broken. In fact the biggest difference was that this room was slightly larger.

"Is it an invisible treasure?" I asked.

"Looks like someone got here first," Riley commented.

"I guess that's more likely," I muttered.

"I'm sorry Ben," Abigail said.

"Yeah," I nodded, "tough break."

"It's gone," Ben said finally.

"I think his brain broke," I whispered.

"Listen Ben-" Mr. Gates began.

"It may have even been gone before Charles Carroll told the story to Thomas Gates," Ben continued.

"It doesn't matter," Mr. Gates told Ben.

"I know," Ben replied, "cause you were right."

"And if we'd listened to Mr. Gates we wouldn't be in this mess," I pointed out.

"No," Mr. Gates corrected me, "I wasn't right. This room is real Ben. And that means the treasure is real. We're in the company of some of the most brilliant minds in history."

"I always thought I belonged there!" I cried happily. "And my teachers always said I wouldn't amount to anything."

"It's because," Mr. Gates continued ignoring me as he spoke to his son, "you found what they left behind for us to find and understood the meaning of it. You did it Ben-"

"With my help," I added.

"- for all of us. Your grandfather and all of us. And I've never been so happy to be proven wrong."

"I just," Ben sighed, "really thought I was going to find the treasure."

"Okay," Mr. Gates said in a matter-of-fact tone, "then we just keep looking for it."

"I'm in," Abigail said.

"You guys make this stuff sound so easy and reasonable," I grumbled, "but what the hell you can put me down for more whacky treasure hunting adventures."

"Not to be Johnny Rain Cloud here," Riley spoke up, "but that's not going to happen. Because as far as I can see we're still trapped down here."

"Yeah," Abigail agreed.

"That is a problem," I nodded, "how do we solve that?"

"Where is that other way out?" Riley asked.

"Well that's it," Ben said, "it doesn't make any sense because the first thing the builders would have done after getting down here was cut a secondary shaft back out for air and in case of cave-ins."

"Cave-ins?" I repeated feel a panic attack coming on. "Did you say cave-ins?"

Ben went back to examining the wall and didn't answer my question, which I took as a very bad sign. He ran is fingers along one of the wall carvings.

"Could it really be that simple?" Ben asked aloud to himself.

"Of all words that we could possibly use to describe this treasure hunt," I said, "I think that '_simple'_ is the very last one on my list."


	16. One Percent

**Chapter #16:**

I looked at the wall carving that had Ben so fascinated, but I still couldn't share his sudden interest in it. I couldn't even tell what it was supposed to be.

From his pocket Ben pulled out an object. It was broken into two pieces.

"What is that?" I whispered.

"It's the pipe that we found," Riley explained, "the one from _The Charlotte_."

"The secret lies with _Charlotte_," Ben repeated the very first clue that had been given to his ancestor decades ago in a hushed tone. Then he reached up and placed the one broken piece into the wall carving.

"It's a perfect fit," I gasped. Not that I needed to say that from the way that everyone was watching what Ben was doing with wide eyes.

Taking the other broken piece, the stem of the pipe, Ben placed it into a hole below the first wall carving so that it was sticking out. Finally he grasped the stem and began to turn it count clockwise.

After it had rotated 180 degrees it stopped with a click. Ben pushed down.

With a whoosh of air a door opened.

"It's a way out," I cheered, "we're not going to die! I knew you could do it Ben!"

"You were threatening to eat him a few minutes ago," Riley pointed out.

"It was a joke," I lied.

Ben's dad walked through the door, followed by Riley.

"Wait for me," I cried as I rushed to catch up. Abigail came behind me.

Finally Ben entered the room, and saw what we all had already seen.

Even to my untrained eye it looked like treasure. Old statues, chests with intricate gold designs on them, swords, golden candle sticks, and paintings just to name a few. The light from our torches bounced off gold from object after object.

We all walked as if in a stupor. Abigail went over to a rack of dusty old scrolls.

"Scrolls from the library at Alexandria," I heard her gasp. "Could this be possible?"

"Apparently yes," I told her.

Mr. Gates was brushing the dust off of a giant old coin. I went past him to a suit of armor and knocked on it's helmet.

"Anyone there?" I asked. Then I promptly dissolved into laughter while everyone else glared daggers at me. I walked away from the armor and over to Riley who was staring at a statue. "What is it?" I asked.

"It's a big, blueish green man with a strange looking goatee," he answered. "I'm guessing that's significant." He went and hugged the statue.

"You know in a lot of cartoons evil people have goatees," I pointed out, "maybe that's the significance."

I looked around to find Ben and saw that he had been investigating a pedestal that was full of some sort of powder. He touched his torch to the powder and it lit up. But it didn't stop there. With a whoosh the fire began racing along a ledge that had been connected with the pedestal.

"Be careful, you're going to light the treasure on fire!" I shouted.

"This is supposed to be on fire," Ben sighed, "it lights the room up."

"You're the expert," I shrugged.

But the fire was staying on the ledge, through traveling down it steadily. We all watched. Suddenly the ledge, and the fire, split into three directions. It continued to split and spread until it had revealed that the room was ten, maybe even twenty, times larger then it had first appeared. And every inch of it was covered with treasure.

"Riley," Abigail said as Ben and his dad cheered, "are you crying?"

"Look," he answered staring into the room, "stairs."

"We're going to get out of this hell hole," I cheered feeling some tears of my own threatening to spill.

We followed the stairs for a long time. It didn't seem so long, however, since we were all still celebrating our victory. Finally though we reached a dead end, which Ben assured me was the way out. He hit it with his torch a couple of time before it cracked open and Ben stepped out into the room through which we had first emptied the creepy tunnel. The rest of us followed him out.

There was a maintenance man standing in the room who looked as if he was about to die of fright.

"Hi," Ben said to him. "Do you have a cell phone I could borrow?"

"Are you holding a skeleton hand?" I asked.

"Don't be rude Maggie," Abigail cautioned.

"I was just curious," I defended myself.

Without a word the man handed over his cell phone. Then he turned and fled the room as fast as he could.

"What's his problem?" I asked as Ben began to dial.

--

The F. B. I. arrived at the church in full force soon after that, headed by Agent Sadusky. I waved in greeting but he simply rolled his eyes. He didn't order the other agents to put me in handcuffs, however, so I took it as a good sign.

Ben stood up to greet Sadusky, the Declaration in his hand. He held it out to Sadusky.

"Just like that?" Sadusky asked.

"Just like that," Ben nodded.

"You do know you just handed me your biggest bargaining chip?"

"The Declaration of Independence is not a bargaining chip," Ben said, "not to me."

"Besides," I spoke up, "we still have the-" Mr. Gates kicked me and I broke off with a gasp of pain.

Sadusky and Ben sat down on the steps up to the alter.

"So what's your offer?" Sadusky asked.

"How about a bribe?" Ben said. "Say uh… ten billion dollars?"

"I take it you found the treasure," Sadusky said.

"In your face everyone who said we wouldn't find it," I cried.

"You are incapable of being quiet," Riley hissed.

"The treasure's about five stories beneath your shoes," Ben told Sadusky.

"Hmm," Sadusky looked down at his feet, "you know the Templars and the Free Masons believed that the treasure was too great for any one man to have, not even a king. That's why they went to such lengths to keep it hidden."

"He seems to know an awful lot about it," I said suspiciously to the others.

"That's right," Ben nodded, "the founding fathers believed the same thing about government."

"So that's why there are three branches," I gasped, "it all makes sense now!"

"I figure their solution will work for the treasure too," Ben concluded.

"Give it to the people," Sadusky added.

"Divide it amongst the Smithsonian, the Louvre, the Cairo Museum. There's thousands of years of world history down there and it belongs to the world and everybody in it."

"Including me!" I burst out. Everyone turned and gave me strange/exasperated looks.

"You really don't understand the concept of a bargaining chip," Sadusky said to Ben completely ignoring my outburst. But Sadusky was smiling now.

"Okay," Ben grinned, "here's what I want. Dr. Chase gets off completely clean, not even a little Post-It on her service record. I want the credit for the find to go to the entire Gates family, with the assistance of Mr. Riley Poole."

"Don't forget me!" I cried.

"And Maggie," Ben added with a grin.

"And what about you?" Sadusky asked Ben.

"I'd really love not to go to prison," Ben told him.

"Ooh," I raised my hand, "I'd like that too. I don't want Ben to go to prison and I'd really like to avoid prison myself."

"I can't even being to describe how much I would love not to go to prison," Ben continued.

"Someone's got to go to prison Ben," Sadusky said.

"Not me!"

"We know," Mr. Gates sighed.

"Well if you've got a helicopter," Ben told him, "I think I can help with that."

--

"So Ian's really gone to prison?" I asked Ben a couple of months later.

"Yep," he answered, "they found him guilty. He won't get out anytime soon."

Riley and I had gone over to Ben and Abigail's new house. Ben was catching me up on Ian's trial while Riley was chatting on his cell phone. It was a beautiful old house, bought with the substantial reward we had all gotten for finding the treasure.

"You got it chief," Riley said into the phone, "thank you. Bye!" He hung up the phone.

"They want us in Cairo last week for the opening of the exhibit," Riley told us, "they're sending a private jet."

"That's fun," Abigail commented.

"Yeah big whoop," Riley sighed. "We could have had a whole fleet of private jets."

"We could have painted them with polka dots," I added.

"Ten percent Ben," Riley lectured, "they offered you ten percent and you turned it down."

"We've been over this," Ben said, "it was too much."

"There's no such thing," I countered. But it was a discussion we'd had before and I was ignored.

"I couldn't accept it," Ben said.

"I still have this splinter that's been festering for three months from an old piece of wood," Riley informed Ben holding his finger out.

"Yeah," I nodded, "I underwent intense mental trauma which has scarred me for life."

"Okay," Ben smiled, "I'll tell you what. The next time we find a treasure that redefines history for all mankind you make the call on finder's fee."

"This guy is funny," Riley said to me.

"He's mocking our pain," I agreed, "he's a monster."

"What do you care?" Riley said turning back to Ben. "You got the girl."

"It's true," Ben and Abigail agreed together before kissing.

"I am sickened," I confided in Riley.

"Rub it in," Riley said to the happy couple. "Enjoy your spoils, while Maggie and I sit on our one percent each."

Riley went over to his brand new sports car, which was as red and flashy as it was possible for a car to be. It was a convertible and he was able to hop in without opening the door.

"It really isn't enough," I agreed. "Hey will you give me a ride to the docks, I left my speed boat there." Riley nodded and I hopped in.

"One stinking percent," Riley muttered, "half of one percent actually. Unbelievable."

"I'm sorry for your suffering," Ben told us.

"For the record Ben," Riley said, "I like the house."

"It's neat," I agreed. "A little old, but still nice and big."

"You know," Ben said enthusiastically, "I chose this estate because in 1812 Charles Carroll met-"

"Someone that did something in history and had fun," Riley interrupted.

"Yadda yadda yadda," I added solemnly.

"Great," Riley put his sunglasses on and started the car, "wonderful. Could have had a bigger house," he said as he began to pull away.

"And the polka dot fleet of private jets," I added.

Riley drove down the driveway.

Then I woke up.

--

"Aww man," I moaned as Philo Farnsworth appeared, "why did you have to do that?" For the first time ever the ghost looked confused.

"Do what?" he asked.

"Wake me up," I replied, "that was an awesome dream! I would have loved to stay."

"You enjoyed the dream?" he asked looking even more confused. I nodded and he frowned looking distressed. "Why?"

"Duh," I rolled my eyes, "because I was rich! Sure it sucked when Ian was trying to kill us and the F. B. I. was trying to arrest us, but in the end we all became filthy freaking rich!"

"Well," Philo Farnsworth grinned in his horrible way, "I will be sure that it will not happen again."

And on this rather foreboding note I woke up.

The good news was that after I woke up they decided to send me straight home rather then going back to class. While this was excellent because I didn't have to be at school anymore, it was also really bad.

This was because my family was at home, and they were not overly pleased with me.

"First you yelled at a teacher," my mother ranted, "then you tell that crazy story to the school counselor! What about your future!"

"My future?" I asked confused.

"Yes," my mother continued, "they're going to remember this when it's time to write your college recommendation letter." This made no sense to me so I ignored her and went up to do my homework.

That night I lay down to go to sleep, giving up my brilliant, (yet exhausting), plan of beating the evil Philo Farnsworth by refusing to sleep. Once again I found myself staring at my DVD collection, wondering which of the innocent films I would be tortured in that night.

As I looked at the tittles I suddenly for the first time realized the appeal of Chick Flicks. If all of my favorite movies were Chick Flicks then I wouldn't be in danger of dying. With that I drifted off to sleep.

"Good news," Philo Farnsworth said without preamble, "I have found a movie where you will definitely **not** be rich!"

"You are a petty hallucination," I accused.

"I would much rather be petty then be absolutely insane like you are," he countered. "All the same even someone with as much insanity as you won't win the crazy award in your next movie."

I did not like the sound of that.

"You will be a cook-"

"A what?" I asked in a whiney voice.

"-on the spaceship Serenity."

"So that would make tonight's movie…"

"Serenity," he finished for me happily.

_**Author's Note:**_

_Well thus ends the 5__th__ night of Maggie's adventures. One year ago today I posted the fourth chapter in this story so I think this one might have been the longest in how long it took to write, (Pirates of the Caribbean still has the most chapters). Anyway I'd just like to once again thank everyone who has read and especially those who have reviewed. I really appreciate all of your support._

_About the next movie, Serenity. It's not a really well known film. That said I can not recommend this movie strongly enough. This is, without a doubt, one of the best movies ever made. It is sci-fi so I was a bit reluctant to see it since there haven't been too many really good sci-fi movies made recently, (especially after the new Star Wars movies which I don't even like to think of since the REAL Star Wars movies were among my favorite movies as a kid). But I did see Serenity and I was blown away. I think it is rated PG-13, but it's really not that bad. If you give it a chance it is, (at least in my opinion), worth seeing. And if you like it you can watch Firefly, but that's a rant for another day since this rant has already gone on too long._

_**Oh! I almost forgot. To find the next Maggie story, (if you don't have author alert), you have to go into TV Shows, then Firefly.**_

_Anyway, thanks again! Hope you have enjoyed the story!_


End file.
